120904-N-FE728-113 DETROIT (Sept. 4, 2012) The US Brig Niagara arrives at Renaissance Pier during the Navy'Äôs commemoration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in Detroit. This celebration coincides with Detroit Navy Week, one of 15 signature events planned across America in 2012. Niagara served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Todd A. Stafford/Released)

120902-N-KT462-122 PEARL HARBOR (Sept. 2, 2012) Sailors standby to perform a rifle volley during the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II aboard the Battleship Missouri Memorial. The ceremony marked 67 years since Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, along with other U.S. and Allied officers, accepted the unconditional surrender of the Japanese, ending World War II. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jon Dasbach/Released)

The Economic and Strategic Case for Extending PNTR to RussiaRemarks William J. Burns
Deputy Secretary U.S. Chamber of CommerceWashington, DCSeptember 6, 2012
Thank you. It’s an honor to be here with Under Secretary Sanchez at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It’s an honor to be introduced by Susan Schwab, for whose service as U.S. Trade Representative I have great admiration, and who did so much during her tenure to advance American economic interests in Russia. And it’s an honor to speak to you briefly today about an issue that matters to all of us -- the economic and strategic argument for extending Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) to Russia.

I have spent a good deal of my checkered diplomatic career helping Administrations of both parties navigate the complexities of the U.S.-Russia relationship. I’ve seen moments of great promise in that relationship, as well as periods of sharp and sometimes abiding differences. Through it all, I’ve tried my best to keep focused on what’s at stake for America’s own interests, as well as for Russia’s long-term evolution. That sense of focus is not always easy to sustain amidst the push and pull of events in both our countries, and in the world around us, but it’s essential to understanding the importance of extending PNTR to Russia today.

This afternoon’s meeting is well-timed. Tomorrow night, Secretary Clinton will touch down in Vladivostok for the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit where liberalizing trade is expected to be high on the agenda. This is the first time Russia has hosted APEC. But more importantly, Russia is convening this gathering as the newest member of another group: the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Russia’s membership in the WTO is a major milestone, reflecting the strong, persistent support of the last three U.S. Administrations. However, until Congress acts to extend PNTR to Russia, our businesses will be deprived of an unprecedented opportunity to boost trade with one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world.

A vote to extend PNTR is not a favor to Russia. It is a vote to create and sustain jobs in the United States. PNTR legislation has attracted bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress and from leaders of states across the country. They have lined up to make clear that PNTR is a vital opportunity to keep our companies competitive and help create new, high-quality American jobs. Continuing to deny PNTR for Russia at this stage only hurts American companies and workers, who are facing fierce economic competition—in more sectors and from more places than ever before.

At a time when our leadership in the world depends on shoring up our economy at home, the potential upside to opening the Russian market to U.S. goods and services is considerable. Russia today is the 7th largest economy in the world, but only our 20th largest trading partner. Yet, for many U.S. states, exports to Russia are growing faster than exports to the rest of the world; in April alone, U.S. goods exports to Russia reached $1 billion, a new record level. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that at least 5,000 American jobs are supported for every $1 billion of U.S. exports.

But until the WTO Agreement applies between the United States and Russia, America’s competitors will enjoy more liberal treatment for exports of goods and services and stronger commitments on protection of intellectual property rights--American companies will not. Until the WTO Agreement applies between us, Russia will be under no obligation to apply science based food safety standards to U.S. agricultural exports, leaving poultry and beef producers in Delaware, Arkansas, and Montana vulnerable. And until the WTO Agreement applies between us, we will not have the same recourse as our competitors to the WTO’s binding dispute resolution mechanism to ensure that Russia complies with its WTO commitments.

Failing to lift Jackson-Vanik and extend PNTR will not penalize Russia, nor will it provide an effective lever to change the Russian Government’s behavior. However, extending PNTR is a smart strategic investment that over the long term can help create a better, more predictable partner for the United States and contribute to Russian efforts to build a more transparent and accountable political and economic system.

Russia today is very much at a crossroads. As demonstrations across Russia over the last nine months have reminded us, a growing number of Russians both in and out of government want to see their country develop into a modern state with a diverse and competitive economy. But those determined Russians, many from the emerging middle class, are not only driven by a thirst for economic prosperity, but for a voice in how decisions are made in their society—for the predictability and accountability that come with rule of law.

While we do not expect change to occur overnight, this is a trend-line that is increasing in pace--and one we should support. Extending PNTR and thereby increasing U.S. trade with Russia can strengthen the hand of Russians who want an outward-looking society and an economy that depends more on the innovativeness and resourcefulness of its people, rather than on resources pulled out of the ground. It can also provide positive reinforcement to those working to create a level playing field, with transparent, predictable rules to serve as a hedge against corruption and further Russia’s political modernization. These are not just my own views. They are the arguments of some of the Kremlin’s harshest critics who have called on the United States to terminate Jackson-Vanik. That does not diminish their deep concerns about human rights and the Magnitskiy case–concerns which we strongly share.

Neither WTO membership nor extending PNTR to Russia can instantly create the kind of change the Russian people are seeking. PNTR should be one part of a stronger and fuller rule of law framework that we pursue with Russia, combined with the investment protections that would come with a new Bilateral Investment Treaty and implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, which Russia joined earlier this year. These steps will not transform Russia’s economy overnight. But they will help integrate Russia into the global economy and send strong signals to investors about Russia’s commitment to strengthening rule of law.

As I said earlier, I’ve learned in many years of helping to navigate U.S.-Russian relations that we have to be realistic about the challenges which lie ahead.

We have serious and enduring differences with Russia that PNTR will not change. We continue to disagree fundamentally about Georgia, whose sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence we firmly support. We also disagree fundamentally about Syria, where no stable outcome is possible as long as Bashar al-Asad remains in power, shedding the blood of his own people and risking a spillover of sectarian violence in a region that already has more than its share of troubles. Russia must make a choice here in determining where its interests lie. In the meantime—with Russia’s help or without it—we will continue to work with others in the international community to seek an end to the violence and to develop concrete steps to support a real political transition that advances the processes of reform, reconciliation, and reconstruction.

We also have profound differences with Russia over human rights. We want to see Russia emerge as both a global power and a vibrant democracy with strong rule of law. And we are seeing a new generation of Russians asking important questions of their own leaders. Without an active and independent media, how will Russia succeed in rooting out corruption and its debilitating effects on the economy? How will Russia build a modern political system responsive to modern challenges unless its citizens and activists can freely express dissenting views, without fear of political prosecution? How can Russia strengthen accountability in governance when whistleblowers like Sergey Magnitsky are arrested or killed for pointing out fraud and abuse? What will Russia do to develop a strong, capable civil society when NGOs receiving foreign funds are stigmatized with misleading labels?

While we cannot and should not impose American solutions, we can and do support those Russians who are seeking answers to these tough questions about their nation’s future. We are already taking concrete steps, using existing restrictions on human rights abusers, to ensure that no one implicated in the death of Sergey Magnitsky can travel to the U.S. We will also continue to support programs that bolster Russia’s civil society and strengthen the hand of those seeking a freer and more open and democratic future for Russia.

By now it should be clear, this is not a simple or easy relationship. Given the complexities and hard work involved, it may be tempting to downplay Russia’s importance. We do not have that luxury. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and one of the world’s largest nuclear powers, and it will remain profoundly in America’s interest to work with Russia where our interests overlap. Already over the last three years we have shown that we can achieve significant results, including on reductions of strategic nuclear weapons and on Afghanistan, where Russia has proven itself a valued partner in ensuring the safe transit of our personnel and equipment to the region. With PNTR, we hope to add expanded trade to this list.

We are encouraged that committees in the Senate and the House have passed PNTR legislation with broad bipartisan support. We also understand that it is likely that a PNTR bill will be considered by both chambers of Congress along with legislation addressing the tragic case of Sergey Magnitskiy. We continue to believe that the case for extending PNTR to Russia stands on its own merits. And, in close consultation with Congress, we will continue to seek out the most effective avenues to address the Magnitskiy case and human rights more broadly.

The economic and strategic stakes are clear. And so is the choice before Congress. Either give Americans the chance to compete on a level playing field in an important market—or we can ensure that the opportunities we worked so hard to create are seized not by Americans, but by workers and businesses beyond our shores. We urge Congress to take action as soon as possible.

Thank you again for the opportunity to meet with you today. Thank you for all your efforts on this important issue. And thank you for everything that the U.S. Chamber does to help ensure that Americans understand the growing connection between economic renewal at home and opening up new markets and new possibilities overseas. I look forward very much to continuing to work with you in that enormously important mission. Thank you.

FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONWashington, D.C., Sept. 5, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the CEO of a Los Angeles-based public relations firm with insider trading on nonpublic information she learned from a client that was about to acquire a bank in a deal assisted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The SEC alleges that Renee White Fraser and her firm Fraser Communications were contacted by Pasadena-based East West Bancorp (EWBC) for marketing and public relations support during its acquisition of San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank. The very next day after agreeing to take on EWBC as a client, Fraser bought 10,000 shares of EWBC stock. She sold all of her shares after EWBC’s stock price jumped 55 percent after the public announcement of the acquisition.

Fraser agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying $91,530.36, which is more than double what she gained in illegal profits from her alleged insider trading.

"Fraser’s client entrusted her with highly sensitive nonpublic information, and she tried to turn that into a quick side profit," said Michele W. Layne, Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. "Consultants in public relations or any career field cannot exploit their client relationships for an illegal payday in the stock market."

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, EWBC contacted Fraser Communications on Oct. 14, 2009, and shared material, nonpublic information about its upcoming FDIC-assisted transaction for the confidential corporate purpose of allowing Fraser and her employees to prepare marketing and public relations materials ahead of that acquisition. EWBC formally engaged Fraser’s firm on October 15 to assist EWBC with public relations work.

The SEC alleges that Fraser, who lives in Santa Monica, purchased 10,000 EWBC shares on October 16 after learning the previous day about the impending EWBC-United Commercial Bank transaction. EWBC announced the acquisition of United Commercial Bank’s banking operations on November 6. Fraser proceeded to sell 7,500 of her EWBC shares on November 10, the second trading day after the announcement. She sold the remaining 2,500 shares on June 24, 2011, for total combined profits of $43,868.

In settling the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations, Fraser agreed to pay $43,868 in disgorgement, $3,794.36 in prejudgment interest, and a $43,868 penalty. She consented to a permanent injunction from further violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. Fraser also agreed to a permanent bar prohibiting her from serving as an officer or director of a public company.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Wendy E. Pearson and Finola H. Manvelian in the Los Angeles Regional Office. The SEC acknowledges the assistance of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

FROM: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
Million Hearts Launches New Educational Program to Improve Americans' Blood Pressure Control

Team Up. Pressure Down. encourages pharmacist-patient engagement
Customers at drugstores around the nation can get help to improve blood pressure control, through a collaboration among pharmacists, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other partners. The program, "Team Up. Pressure Down.," includes educational videos, a blood pressure control journal, and wallet card to track medication use.

The blood pressure initiative, part of the Million Hearts health education program and supported by the Affordable Care Act, was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with practicing pharmacists and national pharmacist groups. The initiative’s tools will help pharmacists talk about current medications and ways in which patients can use the medications most effectively. The goal of Million Hearts is to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.

"This valuable Million Hearts initiative will prevent heart attacks and strokes by bringing pharmacists into the care team to help patients control their blood pressure. Pharmacists are able to talk to patients and families about using medication to manage, high blood pressure, and they can also help patients address barriers to taking their medication," said Surgeon General, Regina M. Benjamin, MD.

In May, the Community Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, nonfederal, uncompensated body of public health and prevention experts, whose members are appointed by the Director of CDC, recommended team-based care—uniting the efforts of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals—to improve blood pressure control. Its recommendation followed a review of evidence from more than 70 scientific publications.

"More than 36 million Americans, or more than half of those with hypertension, don’t have their blood pressure under control and every single day, more than one thousand Americans have a heart attack or stroke," said Janet Wright, M.D., a board-certified cardiologist and executive director of Million Hearts. "Through the ``Team Up. Pressure Down.’’ educational program for pharmacists, we are taking the first step in helping many more Americans achieve blood pressure control."

"Our organization trains the next wave of young pharmacists who are committed to making a difference in patients’ lives," said William Lang, M.P.H., vice president for policy and advocacy, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. "`Team Up. Pressure Down.’ recognizes and supports the critical role of pharmacists in improving blood pressure control through team-based care."

"`The Team Up. Pressure Down’. program will help pharmacists in any setting talk to their patients about the importance of staying on blood pressure medications and coach them on how to control hypertension," said Carolyn C. Ha, Pharm.D., director, professional affairs, National Community Pharmacists Association.

The materials can be tailored for any pharmacy setting. Continuing pharmacy education credit is available for pharmacists who participate.

Practicing pharmacists, pharmacist groups, and consumer groups actively participated in the development of the program over the past year. Contributing organizations included Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Heart Association, American Pharmacist Association Foundation, Blue Ridge Mountain Group, Cardinal Health, Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center, Community Pharmacy Foundation, Compliant Pharmacy Alliance, Creative Pharmacist Healthy Heart Club, Indian Health Service, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, National Association of Drug Store Chains, National Community Pharmacists Association, National Consumer League, Pharmacy Quality Alliance, PharmaSmart, University of Iowa School of Pharmacy, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, USPHS/Pharmacist Professional Advisory Committee, WomenHeart.

Two F-16 Fighting Hornets from 148th Fighter Wing out of Duluth, Minn., prepare to fly in formation behind the boom of a KC-135R Stratotanker from the 128th Air Refueling Wing after being mid-air refueled on August 15, 2012. Air National Guardsmen nominate their civilian employer(s) to witness an air refueling mission as a measure of thanks for the support their employers give to the Air National Guard and the guardsmen. (Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jeremy Wilson)

Aiming for fuel

An F-22 Raptor from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., moves into position behind a KC-135 Stratotanker from Altus AFB, Okla., during an air refueling, Aug. 21, 2012.The F-22 was refueled outside of New York in support of the Brooklyn Cyclone flyover during Air Force Week. (Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kenneth W. Norman)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2012 - Coalition forces and Afghan government leaders are attacking the issue of insider threats in Afghanistan on several levels, a top commander in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said today.

Army Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, commander of ISAF Joint Command, spoke with Pentagon reporters via satellite from the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Insider attacks, which have cost 45 ISAF lives so far this year, occur when an Afghan soldier or policeman, or an enemy impersonating one, deliberately kills or injures a coalition member. Terry told reporters the degree of insurgent involvement in such attacks varies.

"I sense these actions are driven by fear of an increasingly stronger and more capable Afghan national security force ... [as the] insurgency is continuously degraded and discredited," the general said.

Afghanistan's army and police forces and the nation's leaders, from President Hamid Karzai through the Interior and Defense ministries and down to provincial and district governor levels, are "seized by" the issue and committed to stopping it, Terry said.

Terry offered his condolences to the families of those who have been killed in the attacks. "We will never let them be forgotten," said.

The general said the rise in attacks over the summer may reflect the adaptive nature of an enemy whose bombing, assassination and intimidation campaigns are turning Afghanistan's people against the insurgency. "The reality is we're going to face this," he said.

An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman announced today that hundreds of Afghan soldiers have been detained or removed from service. Terry said while he has not yet heard the particulars about those actions, the Afghan Interior and Defense ministries seek to limit insider attacks by examining their recruiting procedures and looking for ways to vet possible recruits more closely.

He noted the coalition is helping in the effort, analyzing data on past insider attacks to determine trends and identify threat factors. With that information, plus the ministries' findings, "we can better focus our vetting and screening efforts," the general said. "In other words, go back in and look at specific populations that we think are at risk."

The eight-step vetting process for recruits includes background and criminal checks, medical and drug screening, interviews and references, Terry said. The Afghan ministries are examining those processes to ensure they're as secure and verifiable as possible, he added.

"In addition to that, they're looking at increased efforts to improve the living conditions for their soldiers," the general noted, "and also how they prepare their soldiers for leave periods, and then specifically how they address those soldiers once they return from leave."

Terry said his own Army experience tells him soldiers are most vulnerable to outside influence when they're away from their units, and he suggested Afghan military leaders consider leave periods as critical for their attention.

Another initiative, he said, is a counterintelligence program that places people trained in countering insider attacks "inside of the formations, so that we can identify some of this threat before it actually materializes out there."

Terry said some 25 percent of insider attacks since 2007 have involved either direct enemy planning or insurgent support to an attacker. Some of the remaining attacks are personally motivated by things such as perceived insults, he added, noting the overall issue features some cultural factors coalition leaders also are examining.

"I would just say that what we all recognize is that this is society that's really been traumatized by 30-plus years of war," Terry said. "It also has a gun culture."

In Afghan culture, resolving grievances and disputes often involves "the barrel of a gun," he said.

"As we look toward cultural sensitivity ... and greater understanding of the culture and of the religion, I think we also have to understand what this country and what this population [have] gone through over time," Terry said.

Because of cultural attitudes toward social factors such as friendship and hospitality, Terry said, "I fundamentally believe, ... and this is based on my experience of three tours over here, ... that [the] closer you are in terms of relationship and friendship with the Afghan partners, probably the safer you are."

Within their own ranks, ISAF forces are emphasizing cultural sensitivity training and building relationships with Afghan partner forces, Terry said.

Meanwhile, Afghan units are gaining strength and capability, he said, noting Afghanistan's army and police forces are getting close to 350,000 people fielded.

Photo Credit: U.S. EPA.
FROM: U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
EPA Awards $15 Million to Assist U.S. Small Drinking Water and Wastewater Systems

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded nearly $15 million in funding to provide training and technical assistance to small drinking and wastewater systems – those serving fewer than 10,000 people – and to private well owners. The funding will help provide training and tools to improve small system operations and management practices, promoting sustainability and supporting EPA’s mission to protect public health and the environment.

"Small systems form the backbone of our nation’s public water system and it is a priority for EPA to help them to meet water quality standards and provide clean water to communities," said Nancy Stoner, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator for Water. "This funding and technical assistance is part of EPA’s continuing efforts to promote sustainability and public health protection for communities served by small systems."

EPA awards include:
Nearly $7 million to the National Rural Water Association and nearly $3 million to the Texas Engineering Extension Service, which together will provide training and technical assistance for small public water systems across the country to achieve and maintain compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act;
$2.5 million to New Mexico Environmental Finance Center to help small systems improve their financial and managerial capabilities that will enable these systems to effectively provide safe drinking water over the long-term;
$2 million to the Rural Community Assistance Partnership to work with small publicly-owned wastewater systems on treatment and operations issues and to help private well owners;
$500,000 to the Rural Community Assistance Partnership to provide training and technical assistance to tribally-owned and operated public water systems.
More than 97 percent of the nation’s 157,000 public water systems serve fewer than 10,000 people, and more than 80 percent of these systems serve fewer than 500 people. Many small systems face unique challenges in providing reliable drinking water and wastewater services that meet federal and state regulations. These challenges can include a lack of financial resources, aging infrastructure, management limitations and high staff turnover.

Arizona Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Selling Access to Botnets

WASHINGTON – Joshua Schichtel, 30, of Phoenix, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for selling command-and-control access to and use of thousands of malware-infected computers, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr.

Schichtel was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in the District of Columbia. In addition to his prison term, Schichtel was ordered to serve three years of supervised release.

Schichtel entered a guilty plea on Aug. 17, 2011, to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

According to court documents, Schichtel sold access to "botnets," which are networks of computers that have been infected with a malicious computer program that allows unauthorized users to control infected computers. Individuals who wanted to infect computers with various different types of malicious software (malware) would contact Schichtel and pay him to install, or have installed, malware on the computers that comprised those botnets. Specifically, Schichtel pleaded guilty to causing software to be installed on approximately 72,000 computers on behalf of a customer who paid him $1,500 for use of the botnet.

This case was investigated by the Washington Field Office of the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Corbin Weiss, Senior Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Map Credit: U.S. State Department.FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATEDelisting of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DCSeptember 6, 2012
The Department of State has revoked the designation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN(M)) and its aliases as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity under Executive Order 13224, and as a "terrorist organization" from the Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). With these actions, the CPN(M)’s property and interests in property in the United States or within the possession or control of U.S. persons will no longer be blocked, and U.S. entities may engage in transactions with CPN(M) without having to obtain a license.

After a thorough review, the Department has determined that the CPN(M) is no longer engaged in terrorist activity that threatens the security of U.S. nationals or U.S. foreign policy. Additionally, in recent years, the Maoist party has been elected as the head of Nepal’s coalition government, has taken steps to dismantle its apparatus for the conduct of terrorist operations, and has demonstrated a credible commitment to pursuing the peace and reconciliation process in Nepal. Today’s delisting does not seek to overlook or forget the party’s violent past, but rather looks ahead towards the party’s continued engagement in a peaceful, democratic political dialogue in Nepal.

This delisting reflects the United States’ resolve to keep our terrorism sanctions current and demonstrates that a group need not stay on a terrorist list forever should it demonstrate a credible commitment to pursuing peace and reconciliation.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: FROM U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

NEPAL GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
A 10-year Maoist insurgency--punctuated by cease-fires in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006--began in 1996. After King Gyanendra announced the reinstatement of Parliament on April 24, 2006, the Maoists declared a 3-month unilateral cease-fire on April 26, 2006 which the new Koirala government reciprocated on May 3, 2006. The Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) and the Maoists signed five agreements, culminating in the comprehensive peace agreement of November 21, 2006, effectively ending the insurgency. However, Maoist violence and intimidation continued in spite of the agreement.

The main agenda of the SPA and the Maoists was to hold a Constituent Assembly election, with the primary responsibility of drafting and promulgating a new constitution defining the future political system in Nepal. The interim constitution, adopted on January 15, 2007, expressed full commitment to democratic ideals and norms, including competitive multi-party democracy, civil liberties, fundamental human rights, adult enfranchisement, periodic elections, press freedom, an independent judiciary, and the rule of law. The interim constitution also guaranteed the basic rights of Nepali citizens to formulate a constitution for themselves and to participate in the Constituent Assembly in an environment free from fear. The interim constitution transferred all powers of the King as head of state to the prime minister and stripped the King of any ceremonial constitutional role. Under the interim constitution, the fate of the monarchy was to be decided by the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly. The interim Parliament was a unicameral house.

After promulgation of the interim constitution, many socially marginalized ethnic communities, including the Madhesis of the lowland Tarai, began widespread protests against the proposed proportional representation system incorporated in the new constitution. Bandhs (general strikes) and protests sometimes turned violent, with clashes between police and demonstrators leading to dozens killed and injured. The government eventually agreed to increase the number of directly elected representatives from the Tarai and implement quotas ensuring representation of women, Madhesis, janajatis, and other groups facing discrimination. Constitutional amendments regarding representation were adopted in March and June 2007. The government signed further agreements with Madhesi and janajati groups agreeing to inclusion in government bodies and institutions as well as commitments to address other issues in August 2007, but those remained to be fully implemented.

Five Maoist ministers were appointed to the Nepali Congress-led cabinet on April 2007. The ministers submitted their resignations on September 18, 2007 over the issue of declaring Nepal a republic and adoption of fully proportional representation system for the Constituent Assembly election. After compromise agreements on these issues were reached--having the interim Parliament declare Nepal a republic but letting the CA implement the measure, and adoption of a mixed electoral system--the constitution was amended again and the Maoist ministers were reinducted on December 31, 2007.

Twice deferred, Nepal's Constituent Assembly election was finally held on April 10, 2008. None of the parties succeeded in getting a simple majority in the CA. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist won 218 out of 575 elected seats, followed by the Nepali Congress with 109 seats, the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist with 103 seats, and the Tarai-based Madhesi People's Rights Forum with 50 seats. Six constituencies needed to hold by-elections, five due to one candidate having won two directly elected seats and one due to the newly elected President resigning his seat. The appointed seats were distributed across the parties in the following manner: Maoist 9, NC 5, UML 5, MPRF 2, SP 1, CPN-Marxist Leninist 1, People’s Front Nepal 1, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party 1, and TMDP 1.

The final list of members elected under the proportional representation system was released on May 8, 2008. The members of the Constituent Assembly were sworn in on May 27, 2008, and the first session of the CA was convened on May 28, 2008. In this session, the CA voted to declare Nepal a federal democratic republic by abolishing the monarchy. Out of 564 members of the CA who voted, 560 voted in favor and 4 against the motion.

While the CA has the prime responsibility of drafting a new constitution for Nepal, it also functions as a regular Parliament. Through the fourth amendment to the interim constitution of Nepal on May 28, 2008, the CA also established, for the first time, a largely ceremonial President as the constitutional head of state, as well as a Vice President. The Prime Minister continues to be the head of the government.

Nepal's judiciary is legally separated from the executive and legislative branches and, in practice, has increasingly shown the will to be independent of political influence. However, by asserting executive control over the judiciary, the interim constitution called into question this independence. Under the interim constitution, the Prime Minister appoints the Chief Justice on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council, and the Chief Justice appoints other judges on the recommendation of the Judicial Council. All lower court decisions, including acquittals, are subject to appeal. The Supreme Court is the court of last appeal.

In August 2008, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Maoist) was sworn in as Prime Minister. Less than a year into his term, Prime Minister Dahal resigned from the government on May 4, 2009 following a dispute over his bid to dismiss the Chief of the Army Staff. On May 23, members from 22 of the 24 political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly elected veteran Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal as Prime Minister. Madhav Kumar Nepal was sworn in on May 25, 2009. On June 30, 2010, Prime Minister Nepal announced his resignation "for the sake of consensus" and to end the country's political deadlock following months of Maoist protests. On February 3, 2011, after 16 rounds of voting, Jhala Nath Khanal (UML) was elected Prime Minister; however, 6 months later on August 14, 2011 Khanal resigned from the government, citing the failure to make significant progress on the peace process. On August 29, 2011, Baburam Bhattarai (Maoist) was sworn in as Nepal's 35th Prime Minister, and the fourth Prime Minister since the 2008 CA election.

Human Rights
Since political reform began in 1990, some progress has been achieved in the transition to a more open society with greater respect for human rights; however, substantial problems remain. Poorly trained police sometimes use excessive force in quelling demonstrations. In addition, there have been reports of torture during detention and widespread reports of custodial abuse. In 2000, the government established the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a government-appointed commission with a mandate to investigate human rights violations. However, the government continues to stall in implementing the commission's recommendations and has not been able to enforce accountability for recent and past abuses. The King's February 2005 dismissal of the government, subsequent imposition of emergency rule and suspension of many civil rights--including freedom of expression, assembly, and privacy--was a setback for human rights in Nepal. During this 3-month period, censors were deployed to major newspapers, and many political leaders were kept under house arrest. The King's government restricted the media from publishing interviews, articles, or news items against the spirit of the royal proclamation of February 1, 2005 or in support of terrorist or destructive activities. The reinstated government, led by Prime Minister Koirala, reversed these decisions in May 2006. The interim constitution promulgated on January 15, 2007 ensured unrestricted freedom of expression and made the NHRC a constitutional body.

Both the Maoists and security personnel have committed numerous human rights violations. The Maoists used tactics such as kidnapping, torture, bombings, intimidation, killings, and conscription of children. Within the Nepalese security forces, violations ranged from disappearances to executions. After the royal takeover on February 1, 2005 and subsequent imposition of the state of emergency, the security forces arrested many political leaders, student leaders, journalists, and human rights activists under the Public Security Act of 1989, although all were released by June 2005 when the King ended the state of emergency.

After the April 2006 cease-fire announced by the government and the Maoists, incidents of human rights violations by the government declined substantially while incidents of human rights violations by the Maoists continued relatively unabated. Even after signing a comprehensive peace agreement with the government in November 2006, Maoists' extortion, abduction, and intimidation remained largely unchecked. Although activities by other political parties have increased significantly in the rural parts of Nepal, political party representatives, police, non-governmental organization (NGO) workers, and journalists reported continuous threats and intimidation by Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL), Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), UML-affiliated Youth Force (YF), UML-affiliated Youth Action Nepal (YAN), or Nepali Congress-affiliated Tarun Dal cadres. During the January-February 2007 uprising in the Tarai, reports of government security forces using excessive force to quell demonstrations were common.

Major daily English-language newspapers include "The Kathmandu Post," "The Himalayan Times," "Republica," and "The Rising Nepal." The last and its vernacular sister publication are owned by a government corporation. There are hundreds of smaller daily and weekly periodicals that are privately owned and of varying journalistic quality. Views expressed since the 1990 move to democracy are varied and vigorous. There are 394 (334 in use) FM radio and 32 (19 in use) television licenses for privately owned and operated stations, following liberalization of licensing regulations. Radio Nepal and Nepal Television are government-owned and operated. There are over 700 cable television operators nationwide, and satellite dishes to receive television broadcasts abound. Internet penetration in Nepal is approximately 4% of the population. Despite its prominence, the Nepali press is still frequently subject to violence and intimidation by political groups.

Trafficking in women and child labor remain serious problems, but some improvement has been seen; in addition, the founder of a U.S.-backed anti-trafficking organization, Maiti Nepal, won the 2010 CNN Hero award. According to the State Department's 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report, Nepal is mainly a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. While Nepal is primarily a source country for destinations like India and the Middle East, internal trafficking is also a prominent issue. Lack of prosecution and police complicity in trafficking cases remain major problems. Discrimination against women and lower castes is prevalent.

FROM: U.S. AIR FORCE
09/4/2012 - THULE AIR BASE, Greenland – Icebergs float on the horizon as 821st Air Base Group Airmen hold a polar bear swim Aug. 4 and 26 at the Thule AB Tug Boat Beach. The air temperature was 51 degrees, while the water was a scant 41 degrees. "It was a really unique experience," said a chilled Staff Sgt. Neal Thompson, 821st Air Base Group Knowledge Operations Management. "It was definitely something that a lot of people are unable to do," he said referring to his newly-earned title of Polar Bear. Thule AB is one of the six installations operated by the 21st Space Wing, and is located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Staff Sgt. Laura Vargas)

Multistate Outbreaks of Human Salmonella Infections Linked to Small Turtles

Contact with reptiles (such as turtles, snakes, and lizards) and amphibians (such as frogs and toads) can be a source of human Salmonella infections. Salmonella germs are shed in the droppings of reptiles and amphibians and can easily contaminate their bodies and the water in tanks or aquariums where these animals live, which can spread to people.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned the sale and distribution of turtles with a shell length of less than 4 inches since 1975. However, small turtles continue to cause human Salmonella infections, especially among young children.

CDC is collaborating with public health officials in multiple states and the FDA to investigate 6 overlapping, multistate outbreaks of human Salmonella infections linked to exposure to turtles or their environments (e.g., water from a turtle habitat). More than 160 illnesses have been reported from 30 states; 64 percent of ill persons are children age 10 or younger, and 27 percent of ill persons are children age one year or younger. Fifty-six percent of ill persons are Hispanic. Key MessagesDon’t buy small turtles from street vendors, websites, pet stores, or other sources.
Keep reptiles out of homes with young children or people with weakened immune systems.
Reptiles should not be kept in child care centers, nursery schools, or other facilities with young children.
ALWAYS wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water immediately after touching a reptile or anything in the area where they live and roam. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not readily available. Adults should always supervise hand washing for young children.

FROM: U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONSEC Charges Georgia Resident with Insider TradingIn August 28, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil injunctive action in the Northern District of Georgia against C. Roan Berry ("Berry"). The Commission alleges that Thomas D. Melvin ("Melvin"), a Griffin, Georgia based CPA and friend of Berry’s, disclosed material non-public information about the pending tender offer for Chattem, Inc. ("Chattem") securities to Berry. The Commission also alleges that Berry tipped his next door neighbor, Ashley J. Coots. The Commission further alleges that Berry and Coots traded in the securities of Chattem based on that material non-public information.

According to the Commission’s complaint, on December 21, 2009, Sanofi-Aventis ("Sanofi"), a French pharmaceutical company, announced its intent to make a tender offer for Chattem, a Tennessee-based distributor of over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, at the price of $93.50 per share ("Announcement"). Shares of Chattem closed 32.60% higher on the day of the Announcement than the prior trading day’s close of $69.98 and volume increased more than 3,000% to 10.3 million shares.

The Commission alleges that in early December 2009, several weeks before the Announcement, an independent board member of Chattem who owned Chattem options that would automatically exercise in the event of an ownership change at Chattem, initiated a series of confidential conversations and meetings with his longtime accountant, Melvin, to discuss potential methods of ameliorating the effect of an acquisition of Chattem on his tax liability. The Chattem board member told Melvin sufficient facts such that, given Melvin’s knowledge of the board member’s affairs, Melvin would have clearly known that the board member was discussing Chattem. Melvin and the Chattem board member also discussed the price impact of the tender offer on the board member’s options.

The Commission further alleges that Melvin misappropriated material non-public information regarding the impending tender offer for Chattem securities. Within days of his first meeting with the board member, Melvin disclosed material non-public information about the impending tender offer to Berry. Berry traded in Chattem securities based on the material non-public information disclosed by Melvin, and Berry tipped Coots, who also traded.

Berry has agreed to settle the Commission claims against him by consenting to the entry of a final judgment providing permanent injunctive relief under Sections 10(b) and 14(e) of the Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5 and 14e-3 thereunder, and by paying disgorgement of $55,091.51, prejudgment interest of $4,860.37, and a civil penalty of $55,091.51. Berry neither admits nor denies the Commission’s allegations, and his settlement is subject to court approval.

Photo Credit: CDCFROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUREWASHINGTON, September 5, 2012—Heading back to school means getting into a new routine. As moms and dads pack lunches for their kids before a busy day of class and extra-curricular activities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) encourages families to update their food safety routine and take precautions that will help prevent food poisoning in America's young students.

"Preventing foodborne illness is part of USDA's public health mission, but one in six Americans is still expected to get sick from the food they eat this year," Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elisabeth Hagen said. "Back to school time provides an excellent opportunity for the whole family to brush up on food safety steps."

When it comes to food safety, are you an A+ student? This true or false quiz is based on real calls to USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854). The hotline is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is staffed by specialists who can answer consumers' questions about safely handling, cooking and storing food.

True or False: To effectively destroy germs on my hands, I need to wash them for 20 seconds.

True. Wash hands before and after handling food with soap and running water by rubbing hands together vigorously for at least 20 seconds. The mechanical action of rubbing your hands creates friction that helps dislodge bacteria and viruses. Warm or hot water is preferable to cold water because it helps dissolve fats and foods, aiding in microbe removal and the deactivation of pathogens. If soapy water is not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations, but sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs, including viruses.

True or False: The "let stand" step of microwave meal instructions is only there so I don't burn myself.

False. If the food label says, "Let stand for x minutes after cooking," do not skimp on the standing time. Food continues to generate heat after the microwave is turned off, so letting your microwaved food sit for a few minutes actually helps your food cook more. That extra minute or two could mean the difference between a delicious meal and food poisoning. After waiting a few minutes, check the food with a food thermometer to make sure it is 165 °F or above.

True or False: I need to put some sort of cold source in my lunchbox.

True. Harmful bacteria multiply rapidly between 40 and
140 °F, so perishable food transported without an ice source will not stay safe long. Insulated, soft-sided lunch boxes or bags are best for keeping food cold, but pack at least two ice sources with perishable food in any type of lunch bag or box you use. You can use two frozen gel packs that are 5-by-3 inches or larger, or combine a frozen gel pack with a frozen juice box. When packing your bag lunch, place the ice sources above and below the perishable food items to keep them cold. If there is a refrigerator available at work or school, store perishable items there upon arrival. If you place your insulated bag in the refrigerator, leave the lid or bag open so that cold air can keep the food cold.

Some food is safe without a cold source. Items that do not require refrigeration include whole fruits and vegetables, hard cheese, canned meat and fish, chips, breads, crackers, peanut butter, jelly, mustard and pickles.

True or False: As long as it isn't topped with chicken or sausage, leftover pizza is safe to eat if unrefrigerated overnight.

False. Bacteria grow readily in carbohydrate-rich, cooked foods. While uncooked vegetables are safe to store at room temperature in their raw state, cooked foods such as casseroles, rice, pasta and pizza—whether or not the dish contains meat or poultry—must be refrigerated within two hours after cooking. The possibility of bacterial growth increases after cooking, because the drop in temperature allows bacteria to thrive. If a food has been left between 40 and 140 °F for more than two hours, discard it, even though it may look and smell okay. The kinds of bacteria that cause food poisoning do not affect the look, smell, or taste of food. Put leftover pizza in the refrigerator right away, and it will be safe to eat for three to four days.

Have Questions? Ask Karen!

The best cheat sheet—ahem, study partner—is USDA's virtual food safety representative, Ask Karen. Ask Karen is available 24 hours a day at www.AskKaren.gov or m.AskKaren.gov on your smartphone, with more than 1,300 food safety questions and answers searchable by topic and by product. The site is available in Spanish at www.PregunteleaKaren.gov and m.PregunteleaKaren.gov. The Mobile Ask Karen app, which has English and Spanish capabilities, can also be downloaded from the Apple and Android app stores.

SEC Charges Radio Personality for Conducting Misleading Investment SeminarsWashington, D.C., Sept. 5, 2012 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a nationally syndicated radio personality and financial advice author for spreading misleading information about his "Buckets of Money" strategy at a series of investment seminars that he and his company hosted for potential clients.

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that investment adviser Ray Lucia, Sr. claimed that the wealth management strategy he promoted at the seminars had been empirically "backtested" over actual bear market periods. Backtesting is the process of evaluating a strategy, theory, or model by applying it to historical data and calculating how it would have performed had it actually been used in a prior time period.

Lucia, who lives in the San Diego area, and his company formerly named Raymond J. Lucia Companies Inc. (RJL) allegedly presented a lengthy slideshow at the seminars indicating that extensive backtesting proved that the Buckets of Money strategy would provide inflation-adjusted income to retirees while protecting and even increasing their retirement savings. However despite the claims they made publicly, Lucia and RJL performed scant, if any, actual backtesting of the Buckets of Money strategy.

"Lucia and RJL left their seminar attendees with a false sense of comfort about the Buckets of Money strategy," said Michele Wein Layne, Regional Director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office. "The so-called backtests weren’t really backtests, and the strategy wasn’t proven as they claimed."

According to the SEC’s order instituting administrative proceedings against Lucia and RJL, they held the seminars highlighting their Buckets of Money strategy in an effort to obtain advisory clients who would be charged fees in return for their advisory services. They promoted the seminars on Lucia’s radio show and on Lucia’s personal and company websites.

According to the SEC’s order, a backtest must utilize actual data from the time period in order to get an accurate result. Lucia and RJL have admitted during the SEC’s investigation that the only testing they actually performed were some calculations that Lucia made in the late 1990s – copies of which no longer exist – and two two-page spreadsheets.

According to the SEC’s order, the two cursory spreadsheets that Lucia claims were backtests used a hypothetical 3 percent inflation rate even though this was lower than actual historical rates. Lucia admittedly knew that using the lower hypothetical inflation rate would make the results look more favorable for the Buckets of Money strategy. These alleged backtests also failed to account for the negative effect that the deduction of advisory fees would have had on the backtesting of their investment strategy, and their "backtesting" did not even allocate in the manner called for by Lucia’s Buckets of Money strategy. The slideshow presentation that Lucia and RJL used during the seminars failed to disclose the flaws in their alleged backtests and was materially misleading.

According to the SEC’s order, Lucia and RJL also failed to maintain adequate records of the backtesting as they were required to do under an SEC rule. The pair of two-page spreadsheets was the only documentation of their backtesting calculations, and those spreadsheets failed to duplicate their advertised investment strategy.

The SEC’s order finds that RJL violated Sections 206(1), 206(2) and 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and Rule 206(4)-1(a)(5) thereunder. The order finds that Lucia willfully aided and abetted and caused RJL’s violations of Sections 206(1), 206(2) and 206(4) of the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-1(a)(5) thereunder. The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is seeking financial penalties and other remedial action in the proceedings.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Peter Del Greco of the Los Angeles Regional Office. John Bulgozdy will lead the litigation. Bryan Bennett and John Kreimeyer conducted the SEC examination that prompted the investigation.

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Report to Congress on the Haqqani Network
Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
September 7, 2012Today, I have sent a report to Congress saying that the Haqqani Network meets the statutory criteria of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). This action meets the requirements of the Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-168). Based on that assessment, I notified Congress of my intent to designate the Haqqani Network as an FTO under the INA. I also intend to designate the organization as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity under Executive Order 13224.

The consequences of these designations include a prohibition against knowingly providing material support or resources to, or engaging in other transactions with, the Haqqani Network, and the freezing of all property and interests in property of the organization that are in the United States, or come within the United States, or the control of U.S. persons. These actions follow a series of other steps that the U.S. government already has taken against the Haqqanis. The Department of State previously designated key Haqqani Network leaders under E.O. 13224, and the Department of the Treasury has designated other militants with ties to the Haqqanis under the same authority. We also continue our robust campaign of diplomatic, military, and intelligence pressure on the network, demonstrating the United States’ resolve to degrade the organization’s ability to execute violent attacks.

I take this action in the context of our overall strategy in Afghanistan, the five lines of effort that President Obama laid out when he was in Afghanistan in May: increasing the capacity of Afghan security forces to fight insurgents; transitioning to Afghan security lead; building an enduring partnership with Afghanistan; pursuing Afghan-led reconciliation; and putting together an international consensus to support peace and stability in the region. We will continue to work with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to move these efforts forward and build a more peaceful and secure future.

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSEMarines with Scout Sniper Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, Regimental Combat Team 6 exit a compound in Agha Ahmad, Afghanistan, Aug. 27, 2012. The Marines with Scout Sniper Platoon and their attachments stood in an over watch position to provide surveillance and gather intelligence on the enemy as part during Operation Helmand Viper.
Date Photo Taken, 8-27-2012 Unit: Regimental Combat Team 6
Photo ByLine, Cpl. Ed Galo

Allen: ISAF 'Absolutely Driven' to Reduce Insider ThreatBy John D. Banusiewicz
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2012 - The threat of attacks on coalition service members by Afghan security forces is a complex problem that requires a comprehensive, integrated and combined response from coalition and Afghan officials, the commander of NATO'S International Security Assistance Force said in a written statement issued today.

"The challenges of the Afghan operating environment are many and countering this threat requires unwavering vigilance, close cooperation and a constant assessment of the situation," Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen said. "There is no one single solution or simple means to deal with the challenge posed by insider threats. But I can assure our friends and foes alike that I take this issue very seriously and my entire command is absolutely driven to do everything we can to reduce this threat."

Afghan security forces or attackers wearing Afghan uniforms have killed 45 ISAF service members this year.

"It's important for everyone to understand the work that is being done," Allen said in his statement. "There is a great deal of activity at all levels of ISAF, in our communications and coordination with the Afghan government, and in our military-to-military cooperation between the coalition and the Afghan national security forces."

The dedication to eradicating the threat runs from the highest levels of ISAF headquarters to every Afghan and coalition service member in Afghanistan's most remote corners, Allen said, noting that the attacks threaten both coalition and Afghan forces and require a coalition and Afghan solution.

The general noted he approved a delay in training about 1,000 new recruits for the Afghan Local Police program, in which villagers in remote areas of Afghanistan provide security in their communities with training from U.S. forces and under the auspices of Afghanistan's Interior Ministry and provincial chiefs of police. The training delay will free up resources to re-vet the 16,000 Afghans already serving as local police.

"This force is on the job today, working and achieving results alongside other Afghan and coalition forces," Allen added. "The immediate operational impact of this decision is that about 1,000 ALP recruits who have not yet entered in the training pipeline will be delayed for a relatively short time while the Afghan government, with coalition support, conducts the necessary checks to ensure we are doing all we can to protect our people."

Special Operations Joint Task Force Afghanistan, led by Army Maj. Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, oversees Afghan Local Police training and recommended the delay, Allen said, noting he approved it in his capacity as commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

"Other subordinate commanders within ISAF and U.S. Forces Afghanistan are assessing the situations within their particular areas and for their specific missions," Allen said. "Through their combined efforts and inputs, overseen and coordinated at the highest level, we will be best positioned to defeat insider attacks. The entire coalition and our [Afghan] partners are moving as one toward that end."

The decision to delay ALP recruit training also helps maintain and reinforce the reputation of the Afghan Local Police as a legitimate, trained and properly overseen arm of Afghanistan's national security force at the local level, Allen said. "It supports the continuing ISAF and Afghan government's efforts to professionalize this force," he added.

The general dismissed recent allegations of reprisal killings by local police in Kanam in Kunduz province.

"There are no ALP forces serving in this area, yet these rumors gain credence in certain sectors because of inaccurate reporting and confusion of the ALP with unauthorized, illegitimate local militias that have long been a feature of local community life in Afghanistan, but which are now a comparatively rare phenomenon as the Afghan government extends its influence," he said.

The change to the training timeline applies only to the Afghan Local Police and does not affect the rest of Afghanistan's security forces, Allen emphasized. And it is only one of many recent actions taken to confront insider attacks, he said, adding that he has communicated frequently with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the issue.

"I have his personal assurance that the Afghan government and military are full partners in our efforts to eradicate this problem," Allen said. "My senior commanders and staff are also holding frequent meetings with representatives of the Afghan government and security forces at the national and local levels to coordinate further effective action."

The general stressed the need for the coalition, Afghan forces and the Afghan government to work together in meeting the challenges of insider threats.

"The problem of insider attacks hurts our Afghan partners as much as they hurts us, and like the battle for stability in Afghanistan, insider attacks are a problem that we are only going to solve through steadfast partnership," he said. And in the meantime, he added, every day provides examples of solid cooperation throughout Afghanistan.

"On any given day, the 350,000 members of the Afghan national security forces continue to relentlessly pressure the insurgency in every corner of this country," he said. "This includes 8,000 Afghan commandos and 3,000 Afghan National Army special operations forces, who recently themselves underwent intensive re-vetting without missing an operational step."

Similar efforts are occurring in other sectors of the Afghan security forces, he added. "This point is proof positive that we can do what we need to protect the force, in full partnership with the Afghan government and security forces, all while keeping unrelenting pressure on the insurgents," he said.

The general also outlined various steps being taken to deal with the insider threat:

-- The organization and execution of major conferences with top commanders and senior Afghan representatives;

-- A new executive oversight group of senior Afghan and coalition leaders to monitor, direct and drive threat mitigation initiatives, supported by a combined multi-agency working group whose only task is to tackle the insider threat problem.

-- Improvements to the vetting process for new Afghan recruits;

-- An increase in the number of counterintelligence teams in coalition and Afghan formations;

-- Helping the Afghan national security forces develop new procedures for Afghan National Army soldiers returning from leave;

-- An anonymous insider threat reporting system;

-- Enhancement of intelligence exchange between Afghan forces and the coalition; and

-- Establishment of a joint investigation commission to study incidents and to identify lessons and required actions.

"The sum total of our combined efforts will be that we are better protected," Allen said. "Central to success is maintaining and strengthening our bonds with our Afghan brothers and recognizing this is a threat directed at us all.

"Relentless pursuit of the enemy is a key line of operation, and this applies equally to the insider threat," he continued. "I can assure you that we will sustain our focus on this threat and we will constantly review, adapt and modify our arrangements to deliver maximum protection to our troops."

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANTITRUST DIVISIONResolves Antitrust Concerns and Preserves Competition in the Sale of Labels and Sticky Notes in the United States

WASHINGTON — 3M Co. abandoned its plan to acquire Avery Dennison Corp.’s Office and Consumer Products Group, its closest competitor in the sale of adhesive-backed labels and sticky notes, after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the deal. The department said that the proposed acquisition would have substantially lessened competition in the sale of labels and sticky notes, resulting in higher prices and reduced innovation for products that millions of American consumers use every day.

On Dec. 21, 2011, 3M and Avery agreed that 3M would acquire Avery’s Office and Consumer Products Group, which includes Avery’s labels business, for approximately $550 million. The agreement specifically excluded some sticky notes assets, but left Avery without its brand or the sales and distribution system necessary to compete effectively in the sticky notes market.

"We welcome the companies’ decision to abandon this deal, which raised competitive concerns in the sale of labels and sticky notes," said Joseph Wayland, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. "As a result of the abandonment of this transaction, American customers will continue to receive the benefits of competition including lower prices and greater innovation in these basic office supplies."

The department’s investigation found that 3M and Avery have dominated adjacent spaces in the office products business for many years – Avery in labels and 3M in sticky notes sold under its Post-it Brand. 3M entered the labels market in the United States in 2009 and began competing with Avery. Avery responded to 3M’s entry by lowering wholesale prices, increasing promotions and customer rebates and accelerating innovations in labels. Avery also responded to 3M’s labels competition by selling Avery branded sticky notes. As a result of the competition between 3M and Avery for the sale of office products, customers have saved millions of dollars and benefited from innovative labels and sticky notes products, the department said.

The proposed merger would have given 3M more than an 80 percent share of both the U.S. labels and sticky notes markets, according to the department.

3M is a Delaware corporation based in Saint Paul, Minn. 3M had 2011 revenues of $27 billion, has operations in 65 countries, and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of office products, including tape, sticky notes, labels, flags and other office products. In 2011, 3M’s Office Supplies Division had world-wide sales of approximately $1.6 billion.

Avery Dennison is a Delaware corporation based in Pasadena, Calif. Avery had 2011 revenues of $6 billion and is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of office and consumer products, including labels, dividers, binders, note tabs, writing instruments and sticky notes. In 2011, Avery’s Office and Consumer Products Group had $765 million in world-wide sales.

People take certain precautions when they go to the beach. They apply sunscreen to avoid sunburn and stay away from big waves if they are not strong swimmers. But they do not usually worry about getting sick from digging or playing in the sand.

Unfortunately, beach sand could harbor even more harmful bacteria than nearby bathing waters. EPA researchers and their counterparts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Johns Hopkins University observed a positive relationship between sand exposure and gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses as a function of fecal microbial pollution in beach sand.

The study was published in the January 2012 issue of Epidemiology.

In one of the first studies to show this association, the researchers analyzed 144 wet sand samples collected from Fairhope Municipal Park Beach in Fairhope, AL, and Goddard Memorial State Park Beach in Warwick, RI. Both beaches are located less than 2 miles from a publicly owned waste treatment-works outfall. The researchers then tested the samples for bacterial indicators of fecal contamination, namely, Enterococcus, Bacteroidales, fecal Bacteroides, and Clostridium, as well as a viral indicator called F+ coliphage.The researchers also asked 4,999 people who visited these beaches about their contact with beach sand and their swimming behaviors and other beach activities. Approximately 2 weeks later, they called the participants and asked them about any diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and/or stomach ache that they and other members of their household may have experienced. Too, they asked about activities that might have taken place since the initial interview, such as going back to same beach, swimming in a pool, or eating raw or undercooked foods.

They found that, compared with beachgoers who did not dig in the sand, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) of illness among those who dug in the sand with the highest Enterococcus levels was 2.0 for GI illnesses and 2.4 for diarrhea (considered as a separate outcome). An OR of 1 implies that the event is equally likely to occur in both groups, and an OR of greater than 1 implies that the event is more likely to occur in the first group (those who dug in the sand).

The researchers also observed positive associations between Bacteroidales and diarrhea among those who reported digging in the sand and being buried in the sand. For Bacteroidales and other fecal indicators, being buried in the sand generally showed a somewhat stronger association with GI illness and diarrhea than did just digging in the sand.

The researchers noted that it is possible that the associations between sand contact and GI illness reflect exposure to contaminated water as well as sand. Teasing apart these effects is challenging because the study showed that very few people who played in sand had no recreational water contact. Eighty-one percent of swimmers versus 19% of nonswimmers reported digging in the sand, whereas 89% of swimmers versus 11% of nonswimmers reported being buried in it.

"We have known for some time that swimming in fecally contaminated water is a risk factor for gastrointestinal symptoms, but this is the first analysis to link these symptoms to measures of fecal contamination in sand," said EPA Environmental Public Health Division (EPHD) Epidemiology Branch Chief Timothy Wade Ph.D., senior author of the study. "The symptoms we observed are usually mild and should not deter people from enjoying the beach, but they should consider washing their hands or using a hand sanitizer after playing in the sand or water."

The study was led by EPA then predoctoral trainee Christopher Heaney, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Other EPA researchers who participated in the study include EPHD health scientist and epidemiologist Elizabeth Sams, MSHSA, and Alfred Dufour of the National Exposure Research Laboratory in Cincinnati.

An aerial view shows damage to Wakuya, Japan, March 15, 2011, after an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the area. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are conducting search and rescue operations and re-supply missions to support Operation Tomodachi throughout northern Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Alexander Tidd
Registry to Provide Japan Response Radiation Info By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2012 – Though no Defense Department personnel or their families were exposed to radiation causing adverse health conditions following the nuclear accident in Japan last year, the department has established a registry to provide information to those who served in the stricken country.

The March 11, 2011, earthquake and subsequent tsunami off the coast of Japan caused extensive damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, and radiation leaked from the facility.

The Defense Department has established an Operation Tomodachi registry for the 70,000 U.S. service members, family members, DOD civilians and DOD contractors who were in Japan from March 12 to May 11, 2011, said Dr. Craig Postlewaite, DOD’s director for force readiness and health assurance.

"The concept of a registry evolved very soon after the crisis in Japan," the doctor said in an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service. "Initially, there was great emphasis placed on environmental monitoring, because we needed to monitor those levels to ensure that people weren’t adversely affected during the crisis."

Commanders used the monitoring information to assess whether to evacuate personnel. The monitoring data, plus a policy that required the services to report daily precisely where every service member was, enabled the department to establish the registry, he said. "We then had the capability to provide information on estimated doses of radiation" for each person, Postlewaite said.

The Operation Tomodachi registry is being built in a secure database in which all personal information is protected. The dosage estimates cover 13 different shore-based locations, U.S. Navy ships located off the mainland of Japan and aircrews. It also incorporates about 4,000 U.S. responders who were issued radiation dosimeters. "The registry will be finished this calendar year," Postlewaite said.

In addition to the registry, DOD is building a companion website to the registry. Individuals cannot be identified on the website, but people can click on a map to determine the exposures in a specific prefecture, base or area for those who spent most of their time on mainland Japan in the timeframe the registry covers. The website also has information on radiation doses from a medical standpoint.

The doses and other information in the registry and on the website have been peer-reviewed and agree with information provided by national and international groups – including the World health organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Dr. Paul Blake, a senior health physicist at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va. Blake also serves as the Operation Tomodachi co-chair for the dose assessment and recording working group.

The radiation release from the nuclear plant came in two types, the doctor said. "One was the shorter-lived radioactive iodines," Blake said. "If you inhale it or ingest it, it has the tendency to collect in your thyroid in your neck. We needed to look at the health risk associated with that."

The other health risk is radioactive cesium. "Cesium can have a half-life of 30 years, so it is still over there in Japan," he said.

So from a health risk viewpoint, DOD officials looked at a dose to the thyroid and a dose to the whole body, and "that’s how we prepared the dose assessment for our shore facilities," he said.

"Both the thyroid and whole body doses are significantly lower than the occupational limits that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission provides for this country," he added.

What people were doing was as important as where they were, Blake said. "The Marines, for instance, did a lot of humanitarian efforts. When you are out there pushing hard and sweating, you are drinking a lot more water, [and] you are breathing a lot harder," he explained. "We needed to take into account radionuclides would enter the body at a faster rate than someone doing a more sedentary [job]."

Sex and age made a difference in the assessments also. Absorption of radionuclides changes depending on a person’s gender and age.

Officials also are concerned about children. "They can be more sensitive, because they are still growing," Blake said. "Fortunately, our children were fairly far back from the actual source. The doses they received were safe."

PATROL BASE DETROIT, Afghanistan, Sept. 5, 2012 - The Marines are down but not out. The late afternoon sun beats on them, and one Marine wipes sweat from his eyes. Across from them, their opponents smile, seemingly sensing the outcome. With the Olympics fresh in their minds, this is not simply a volleyball game. This is a matter of national pride. Then it happens: a questionable call. Is it a point for the Afghan soldiers on one side of the net, or is it the Marines' serve? Hand gestures and facial expressions are not enough to explain the concerns of both teams.

Then a Marine steps in, turns to the Afghan soldier and begins pleading the Marines' case. The only catch is that unlike the others, he is not speaking English and using over dramatic hand gestures. He is speaking Pashtu, the Afghan soldiers' native language.

"It really helps when we are patrolling and we run into a family," Pontious said. "When they see I can speak their language, it usually puts them at ease. We have that common ground, and we can build off it."

Pontious' platoon has two interpreters, but has three squads. This means when the entire platoon patrols, one squad usually is left without an interpreter.

"It's huge having someone like Pontious, who's a Marine but can also speak Pashtu," said Marine Corps Sgt. Jason Lomeli, Pontious' squad leader. "The other day we had to roll out, and the [platoon commander] asked if I was good without an [interpreter]. I responded, 'Of course I'm good -- I have Pontious.'"

Pontious' skills often help to mitigate potentially damaging relations with local Afghans. He explains to the head of the household what the Marines are doing and why they are there, and he reassures the family.

But Pontious said what he really enjoys is the part of speaking Pashtu that isn't work-related.

"I love talking to the children," the Effingham, Ill., native said. "They are really funny, and I love giving them water or candy and watching their smiles."

Even when his squad returns from patrols, Pontious' ability to bridge the language barrier is put to good use. His platoon works closely with Afghan soldiers with 1st Kandak, 1st Brigade, 215th Corps.

Pontious often talks to the Afghan soldiers, trading with them and planning volleyball games.

Pontious attended a three-month language school to learn Pashtu before deploying to Afghanistan, attending grammar classes in the morning and cultural classes in the afternoon. He graduated third in a class of more than 200 students and the highest of any Marine in his battalion.

Before going to the school, Pontious said, he had developed a reputation as a troublemaker and couldn't seem to shake the misconceptions about him.

"When I first arrived, some of the other leaders warned me about Pontious, saying he might cause issues," explained Lomeli, from Riverdale, Ill. "I think Pontious was misunderstood. He does everything I ask of him and more, and he's a great asset to the squad."

Pontious used his poor reputation as motivation during language school. He volunteered to attend the class, he said, because he learned French easily in high school.

"Honestly, I had some doubters when I left for the course," Pontious said. "I wanted to prove them wrong, and I ended up getting an A in the course."

He also keeps his language skills sharp, practicing with a textbook he brought to Afghanistan and asking the interpreters questions. He also uses a Pashtu-to-English dictionary he received from an Afghan soldier. "That helped a lot," Pontious said. "I take it with me every time we go out."

Back on the volleyball court, Pontious finishes pleading his case. His explanation seems to satisfy his Afghan counterparts, at least for this point, and within moments the Marines and Afghans are playing again.

"I really think I'm helping to change the perception of Marines [for] the people of Afghanistan," Pontious said. "I think they see the effort I've put in to learn their language and their culture, and I think they appreciate it."

NORTH SEA WITH BLOOMING PHYTOPLANKTON

Despite its cold waters and harsh winds, the North Sea is a fertile basin for phytoplankton blooms. The drifting, plantlike organisms tend to be most abundant in late spring and early summer due to high levels of nutrients in the water and increasing sunlight. The intense winds blowing over the relatively shallow North Sea causes a lot of vertical and horizontal mixing that brings nutrients to the surface, as does runoff from European rivers. This image, acquired on June 11, 2015, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, shows a mass of phytoplankton blooming between Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Germany. As compared to a June 6 image showing a different stage of the bloom cycle, areas of concentrated phytoplankton are smaller and most have the milky color characteristic of coccolithophores; there are few to no green areas. The change could be due to the short life span of phytoplankton—two to six days—and differences between the species. Some outlast others because of their ability to survive at lower nutrient levels. Some researchers have found that numbers of plankton can actually begin to increase in the middle of winter, when growth conditions would seem to be at their worst. Studies suggest that winter storms churn the ocean and cause deep water mixing. This water mixing allows for phytoplankton to grow and live at depth without being spotted by their predators. When spring arrives, phytoplankton can fully bloom because not only are the nutrients available, but there is a longer period of sunlight. Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using data from the Level 1 and Atmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS). Caption: Rachel Carlowicz with Mike Carlowicz

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WATCHING YOUNG STARS SPARKLE

While fireworks only last a short time here on Earth, a bundle of cosmic sparklers in a nearby cluster of stars will be going off for a very long time. NGC 1333 is a star cluster populated with many young stars that are less than 2 million years old, a blink of an eye in astronomical terms for stars like the Sun expected to burn for billions of years. To make a detailed study of the X-ray properties of young stars, a team of astronomers, led by Elaine Winston from the University of Exeter, analyzed both the Chandra X-ray data of NGC 1333, located about 780 light years from Earth, and of the Serpens cloud, a similar cluster of young stars about 1100 light years away. They then compared the two datasets with observations of the young stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster, perhaps the most-studied young star cluster in the Galaxy.The researchers found that the X-ray brightness of the stars in NGC 1333 and the Serpens cloud depends on the total brightness of the stars across the electromagnetic spectrum, as found in previous studies of other clusters. They also found that the X-ray brightness mainly depends on the size of the star. In other words, the bigger the stellar sparkler, the brighter it will glow in X-rays. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Wolk et al; Optical: DSS & NOAO/AURA/NSF; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

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ARTIST GRAPHIC OF PLUTO'S OCCULATION

The Stratosphere Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that makes celestial observations with its German-built 100-inch telescope. The telescope is enhanced to collect infrared radiation, and is able to detect energy at a wider range of wavelengths than any other ground-based or space telescope. SOFIA can fly anywhere in the world, and operates at altitudes up to 45,000 feet, putting the observatory above more than 99 percent of Earth's atmospheric water vapor that blocks infrared radiation from celestial objects. SOFIA is flying out of Christchurch, New Zealand, where its telescope can study celestial objects more easily observed from the Southern Hemisphere. Starting June 28 through the 29th, instruments on the plane will observe Pluto as it passes in front of a background star. Data returned from the observations will be provided to the New Horizon team who is preparing for Pluto's occultation, July 13 through the 15th. Image is an artist's conception of the Pluto occultation seen close-up, not a photo. Credits: NASA Graphic.

SHOOTING STARS IN SPACE

Caption Credit: NASA. Astronaut Ron Garan, Expedition 28 flight engineer, tweeted this image from the International Space Station in August, 2011 with the following caption: “What a `Shooting Star’ looks like from space, taken yesterday during Perseid Meteor Shower.” A special camera to record meteor showers will launch to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft, currently scheduled to launch on June 28, 2015, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The Meteor investigation should be installed in the station’s Window Observational Research Facility by the end of July, enabling scientists to learn more about the composition and behavior of asteroids and comets that cross paths with Earth. The investigation's camera is programmed to record known major meteor showers during its two-year orbit and could spot unpredicted showers as well. Image Credit: NASA.

SUNSET ON MARS

Curiosity used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to record the sunset during an evening of skywatching on April 15, 2015. The imaging was done between dust storms, but some dust remained suspended high in the atmosphere. The sunset observations help researchers assess the vertical distribution of dust in the atmosphere. "The colors come from the fact that the very fine dust is the right size so that blue light penetrates the atmosphere slightly more efficiently," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, the Curiosity science-team member who planned the observations. "When the blue light scatters off the dust, it stays closer to the direction of the sun than light of other colors does. The rest of the sky is yellow to orange, as yellow and red light scatter all over the sky instead of being absorbed or staying close to the sun." Just as colors are made more dramatic in sunsets on Earth, Martian sunsets make the blue near the sun's part of the sky much more prominent, while normal daylight makes the rusty color of the dust more prominent. Photo/Caption Credit: NASA.

THE U.S. FLAG ON MARS

Caption Credit: NASA. This view of the American flag medallion on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 44th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Sept. 19, 2012). The flag is one of four "mobility logos" placed on the rover's mobility rocker arms. Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-MSSS.

AN IMPACT LEFT ON MARS

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars on March 30, 2015. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Fresh craters often have steep, active slopes, so the HiRISE team is monitoring this crater for changes over time. The bedrock lithology is also diverse. The crater is a little more than 1-kilometer wide. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Caption: Alfred McEwen.

AN AURORA OF DANCING LIGHTS

NASA Caption. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photo of an aurora from the International Space Station on June 23, 2015. The dancing lights of the aurora provide spectacular views on the ground, but also capture the imagination of scientists who study incoming energy and particles from the sun.

A NEW VIEW OF EARTH AURORAS FROM ASTRONAUT SCOTT KELLY

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured photographs and video of auroras from the International Space Station on June 22, 2015. Kelly wrote, "Yesterday's aurora was an impressive show from 250 miles up. Good morning from the International Space Station! ‪‎ Image Credit: NASA.

A LOOK AT GALAXY NSG 6503

Caption Credit: NASA.Most galaxies are clumped together in groups or clusters. A neighboring galaxy is never far away. But this galaxy, known as NGC 6503, has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across. It seems completely empty of stars or galaxies. The galaxy’s odd location on the edge of this never-land led stargazer Stephen James O’Meara to dub it the “Lost-In-Space galaxy” in his 2007 book, Hidden Treasures. NGC 6503 is 18 million light-years away from us in the northern circumpolar constellation of Draco. NGC 6503 spans some 30,000 light-years, about a third of the size of the Milky Way. This Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 6503 in striking detail and with a rich set of colors. Bright red patches of gas can be seen scattered through its swirling spiral arms, mixed with bright blue regions that contain newly forming stars. Dark brown dust lanes snake across the galaxy’s bright arms and center, giving it a mottled appearance. The Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys data for NGC 6503 were taken in April 2003, and the Wide Field Camera 3 data were taken in August 2013. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts), H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University), and the Hubble Heritage Team.

FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN FLIES INTO SPACE ON SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGER

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space when the space shuttle Challenger launched on mission STS-7 from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-7 crew consisted of astronauts Robert Crippen, commander, the first two-time space shuttle astronaut; Frederick H. Hauck, pilot; and three mission specialists -- Ride, John M. Fabian and Norman E. Thagard. This high-angle view of the shuttle liftoff, showing a lengthy stretch of Florida Atlantic coastline and a number of large cumulus clouds, was photographed with a handheld 70mm camera by astronaut John W. Young, who piloted the Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) for weather monitoring at launch and landing sites for STS missions. One of Sally Ride's jobs was to call out "Roll program" seven seconds after launch. "I'll guarantee that those were the hardest words I ever had to get out of my mouth," she said later. Image Credit: NASA.

BLUE ANGELS PERFORMING AT OCEAN CITY AIR SHOW

150614-N-WJ386-079 OCEAN CITY, Md. (June 14, 2015) The U.S. Navy flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, perform the Diamond 360 maneuver at the Ocean City Air Show. The Blue Angels are scheduled to perform 68 demonstrations at 35 locations across the U.S. in 2015. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrea Perez/Released)

IMAGE FROM BALTIC OPERATIONS 2015

DOD Caption. Four F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 480th Fighter Squadron conduct a refueling mission during Baltic Operations 2015 over the Baltic Sea, June 15, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Michael Battles.

TROPICAL STORM BILL

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, currently on a one-year mission to the International Space Station, took this photograph of Tropical Storm Bill in the Gulf of Mexico as it approached the coast of Texas, on June 15, 2015. Kelly wrote, "Concerned for all in its path including family, friends & colleagues."

ON EDGE SPIRAL GALAXY NGC 5023

Caption Credit: NASA. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows an edge-on view of the spiral galaxy NGC 5023. Due to its orientation we cannot appreciate its spiral arms, but we can admire the elegant profile of its disk. The galaxy lies over 30 million light-years away from us. NGC 5023 is part of the M51 group of galaxies. The brightest galaxy in this group is Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, which has been captured by Hubble many times. NGC 5023 is less fond of the limelight and seems rather unsociable in comparison — it is relatively isolated from the other galaxies in the group. Astronomers are particularly interested in the vertical structure of disks like these. By analyzing the structure above and below the central plane of the galaxy they can make progress in understanding galaxy evolution. Astronomers are able to analyze the distribution of different types of stars within the galaxy and their properties, in particular how well evolved they are on the Hertzsprung–Russell Diagram — a scatter graph of stars that shows their evolution. NGC 5023 is one of six edge-on spiral galaxies observed as part of a study using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. They study this vertical distribution and find a trend which suggests that heating of the disc plays an important role in producing the stars seen away from the plane of the galaxy. In fact, NGC 5023 is pretty popular when it comes to astronomers, despite its unsociable behavior. The galaxy is also one of 14 disk galaxies that are part of the GHOSTS survey — a survey which uses Hubble data to study galaxy halos, outer disks and star clusters. It is the largest study to date of star populations in the outskirts of disk galaxies. The incredible sharp sight of Hubble has allowed scientist to count more than 30,000 individual bright stars in this image. This is only a small fraction of the several billion stars that this galaxy contains, but the others are too faint to detect individually even with Hubble. European Space Agency Credit-ESA-NASA

THE THUNDERBIRDS FLY OVER CENTRAL PARTK

Members of the Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, fly in formation during a photo-chase mission over Central Park in New York City, May 22, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jason Couillard.

U.S. SAILORS RECOVER NASA TEST VEHICLE

Caption Credit: DOD. Sailors recover the test vehicle for NASA's low-density supersonic decelerator off the coast of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii, June 8, 2015. The vehicle is part of a project to investigate and test technologies to land future robotics and humans on Mars, and safely return large payloads to Earth. The sailors are assigned to Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer John M. Hageman.

A CROWDED NEIGHBORHOOD OF STARS

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way. It is located about 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), close to the heart of our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is, like its neighbor the Quintuplet Cluster, a fairly young astronomical object at between two and four million years old. The Arches cluster is so dense that in a region with a radius equal to the distance between the sun and its nearest star there would be over 100,000 stars! At least 150 stars within the cluster are among the brightest ever discovered in the Milky Way. These stars are so bright and massive that they will burn their fuel within a short time (on a cosmological scale that means just a few million years). Then they will die in spectacular supernova explosions. Due to the short lifetime of the stars in the cluster the gas between the stars contains an unusually high amount of heavier elements, which were produced by earlier generations of stars. Despite its brightness the Arches Cluster cannot be seen with the naked eye. The visible light from the cluster is completely obscured by gigantic clouds of dust in this region. To make the cluster visible astronomers have to use detectors which can collect light from the X-ray, infrared, and radio bands, as these wavelengths can pass through the dust clouds. This observation shows the Arches Cluster in the infrared and demonstrates the leap in Hubble’s performance since its 1999 image of same object. Image credit: NASA/ESA. Text credit: European Space Agency

REOMOTELY PILOTED AIRCRAFT DISPLADED AT DOD LAB DAY

A marine walks past a remotely piloted aircraft outside the Pentagon during the Department of Defense Lab Day, May 14, 2015. The aircraft is being developed by the Naval Research Laboratory. DoD photo by EJ Hersom.

SECOND TEST OF NASA'S LDSD

The second flight test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) will be attempted on Tuesday, June 2 at no earlier than 1:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 a.m. HST), launching a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle into near-space from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. The LDSD project, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, is conducting this full-scale flight test of two breakthrough technologies: a supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator, or SIAD, and an innovative new parachute. These devices potentially will help us deliver double the current amount of payload — 1.5 metric tons — to the surface of Mars. They also will greatly increase the accessible surface area we can explore, and will improve landing accuracy from a margin of approximately 6.5 miles to a little more than 1 mile. All these factors will dramatically increase the success of future missions on Mars. The LDSD project's successful first flight test was launched on June 28, 2014. In this photograph, a full mission dress rehearsal is held for the LDSD project, Friday, May 29, 2015, at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, HI. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

SPINSAT INVESTIGATION RETURNS

Equipment and data from the SpinSat investigation returns to Earth today, May 21, 2015, with splashdown of the sixth SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. This Nov. 28, 2014 photograph by NASA astronaut Terry Virts captures the predeploy of SpinSat, which was launched into orbit from the station.

50 YEARS OF GOING FOR A WALK IN SPACE

In this Feb. 7, 1984 photograph taken by his fellow crewmembers aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-41B mission, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II approaches his maximum distance from the vehicle. McCandless became the first astronaut to maneuver about in space untethered, during this first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled, hand-controlled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). Image Credit: NASA.

NASA SUPPORTS F-15 PROGRAM

NASA pilot Jim Less and photographer Jim Ross pull their F-15D #897 aircraft away from a KC-135 refueling tanker. NASA is supporting the Edwards Air Force Base F-15 program with safety and photo chase expertise. NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center currently flies an F-15D Eagle aircraft for research support and pilot proficiency. NASA research support aircraft are commonly called chase planes and fill the role of escort aircraft during research missions. Chase pilots are in constant radio contact with research pilots and serve as an "extra set of eyes" to help maintain total flight safety during specific tests and maneuvers. They monitor certain events for the research pilot and are an important safety feature on all research missions. Chase aircraft also are used as camera platforms for research missions that must be photographed or videotaped. Aeronautical engineers use this pictorial coverage (photos, motion pictures, and videotape) extensively to monitor and verify various aspects of research projects. The F-15D is also used by Armstrong research pilots for routine flight training required by all NASA pilots. Image Credit: NASA/Jim Ross.

SDO IMAGES OF THE SOLAR ATMOSPHEREE

Caption Credit: NASA. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images the solar atmosphere in multiple wavelengths to link changes in the surface to interior changes. Its data includes images of the sun in 10 wavelengths every 10 seconds. When AIA images are sharpened a bit, such as this AIA 171Å channel image, the magnetic field can be readily visualized through the bright, thin strands that are called "coronal loops". Loops are shown here in a blended overlay with the magnetic field as measured with SDO's Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager underneath. Blue and yellow represent the opposite polarities of the magnetic field. The combined images were taken on Oct. 24, 2014, at 23:50:37 UT. Image Credit: NASA SDO.

NOAA'S GOES-EAST SATELLITE'S IMAGE OF NOR'EASTER

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured the center of the developing Nor'easter located off North Carolina's Outer Banks on Jan. 26 in the image from 16:30 UTC (12:30 p.m. EST). Image Credit: NASA/NOAA Goes Project

DEPRESSION ON SURFACE OF MARS

Caption Credit: NASA. This image of a circular depression on the surface of Mars was acquired on Jan. 5, 2015 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since March 2006 and completed its 40,000th orbit around Mars on Feb. 7, 2015. The target of this observation is a circular depression in a dark-toned unit associated with a field of cones to the northeast. At the scale of an image taken by MRO's Context Camera, which provides wide area views to provide context for high-resolution analysis, the depression appears to expose layers especially on the sides or walls, which are overlain by dark sands presumably associated with the dark-toned unit. The HiRISE camera's resolution, which is far higher than that of the Context Camera and its larger footprint, can help identify possible layers. HiRISE is one of six instruments on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-University of Arizona.

MILITARY ROBOT DISPLAYED AT DOD LAB DAY

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Perara guides a robot during the Department of Defense Lab Day at the Pentagon, May 14, 2015. Perara is assigned to the Marine Warfighting Laboratory. DoD photo by EJ Hersom.

FLEET WEEK NEW YORK 2015

Caption Credit: U.S. Navy. 150520-N-PJ969-213 NEW YORK (May 20, 2015) The amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17) enters New York harbor during the Parade of Ships to start Fleet Week New York 2015. Fleet Week New York, now in its 27th year, is the city's time-honored celebration of the sea services. It is an unparalleled opportunity for the citizens of New York and the surrounding tri-state area to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as witness firsthand the latest capabilities of today's maritime services. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Abe McNatt/Released)

22,000 LIGHT YEARS TO EARTH: NGC 6535

This image captures the stunning NGC 6535, a globular cluster 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent) that measures one light-year across. Globular clusters are tightly bound groups of stars which orbit galaxies. The large mass in the rich stellar centre of the globular cluster pulls the stars inward to form a ball of stars. The word globulus, from which these clusters take their name, is Latin for small sphere. Globular clusters are generally very ancient objects formed around the same time as their host galaxy. To date, no new star formation has been observed within a globular cluster, which explains the abundance of aging yellow stars in this image, most of them containing very few heavy elements. NGC 6535 was first discovered in 1852 by English astronomer John Russell Hind. The cluster would have appeared to Hind as a small, faint smudge through his telescope. Now, over 160 years later, instruments like the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the NASA/ European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope allow us to marvel at the cluster and its contents in greater detail. European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine.

INTELSAT VI SATELLITE MOVES INTO ENDEAVOUR'S CARGO BAY

Caption Credit: NASA. On May 13, 1992, following the successful capture of the Intelsat VI satellite, three astronauts continue moving the 4.5 ton communications satellite into the space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay. The sections of Earth which form the backdrop for the scene are blanketed with thousands of square miles of clouds. NASA Photo.

THE DRYDEN AEROSPIKE ROCKET TEST

Caption Credit: NASA. EC04-0113-171 The Dryden Aerospike Rocket Test provided the first known data from a solid-fueled aerospike rocket in flight. The test took place March 30 and 31, 2004, at the King Ranch launch site at the Pecos County Aerospace Development Corporation Flight Test Range in Fort Stockton, Texas. March 30, 2004 NASA Photo / Steve Thomas. Aerospike Rocket Project. Last Updated: May 9, 2015. Editor: NASA Administrator.

HEAVY RAINFALL FALLS ON AUSTRALIAN COASTS

Caption Credit: NASA. The rainfall accumulation analysis above was computed from data generated by the Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) during the period from April 28 to May 3, 2015. During this period IMERG algorithms continuously merged and interpolated satellite passive microwave precipitation estimates and microwave-calibrated infrared (IR) satellite estimates over the entire globe. Rainfall from cyclone Quang fell over the west coast and a non-tropical system pounded the east coast of Australia simultaneously during the past weekend. Cyclone Quang formed in the South Indian Ocean northwest of Australia on April 28, 2015. Quang's peak intensity of 115kts (133 mph) occurred while it was well off western Australia's coast. The heaviest rainfall with cyclone Quang also occurred during this period when the tropical cyclone was far out in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia's coast. Total rainfall there was measured at over 454 mm (17.9 inches). Heavy rainfall of over 448 mm (17.7 inches) was also found by this analysis in the Coral Sea off Australia's southeast coast. Rainfall totals of above 356 mm (14.0 inches) were analyzed with the passage of the low pressure center over southeastern Australia. Flooding in this area caused the reported deaths of at least four Australians. Credits-SSAI-NASA, Hal Pierce.

SOMEWHERE OVER THE GRAND CANYON

From the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Terry Virts took this photograph of an early morning sunrise over the Grand Canyon and posted it to social media on May 10, 2015. Because the station completes each trip around the globe in about 92 minutes, the crew experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. The space station and its crew orbit Earth from an altitude of 220 miles, traveling at a speed of approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Because the station completes each trip around the globe in about 92 minutes, the crew experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. Image Credit: NASA. Last Updated: May 13, 2015. Editor: Sarah Loff

THE ISS SOALR ARRAY

Caption Credit: NASA. Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) photographed the giant solar arrays on the International Space Station on Feb. 12, 2015. The space station's solar arrays contain a total of 262,400 solar cells and cover an area of about 27,000 square feet (2,500 square meters) -- more than half the area of a football field. A solar array's wingspan of 240 feet (73 meters) is longer than a Boeing 777's wingspan, which is 212 feet (65 meters). Altogether, the four sets of arrays can generate 84 to 120 kilowatts of electricity -- enough to provide power to more than 40 homes. The solar arrays produce more power than the station needs at one time for station systems and experiments. When the station is in sunlight, about 60 percent of the electricity that the solar arrays generate is used to charge the station's batteries. At times, some or all of the solar arrays are in the shadow of Earth or the shadow of part of the station. This means that those arrays are not collecting sunlight. The batteries power the station when it is not in the sun. Image Credit: ESA/NASA

THE ATMOSPHERE ON MERCURY

Caption Credit: NASA. The Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was designed to study both the exosphere and surface of the planet Mercury. To learn more about the minerals and surface processes on Mercury, the Visual and Infrared Spectrometer (VIRS) portion of MASCS has been diligently collecting single tracks of spectral surface measurements since MESSENGER entered Mercury orbit on March 17, 2011. The track coverage is now extensive enough that the spectral properties of both broad terrains and small, distinct features such as pyroclastic vents and fresh craters can be studied. To accentuate the geological context of the spectral measurements, the MASCS data have been overlain on the monochrome mosiac from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), an instrument with wide- and narrow-angle cameras to map the rugged landforms and spectral variations on Mercury’s surface. Click on the image to explore the colorful diversity of surface materials in more detail! The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the solar system's innermost planet. In the mission's more than four years of orbital operations, MESSENGER has acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER's highly successful orbital mission is about to come to an end, as the spacecraft runs out of propellant and the force of solar gravity causes it to impact the surface of Mercury near the end of April 2015. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

GUARD HELICOPTERS BATTLE WILDFIRES IN NORTH DAKOTA

A UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the 1-112th Aviation Company, fights a wildfire south of Bismarck, North Dakota, on April 13, 2015. Smoke obscures the aircraft as it flies its bucket to drop water on the blaze. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Brett Miller.)

NASA'S GREASED LIGHTNING BATTERY PLANE

Caption Credit: NASA. A team at NASA's Langley Research Center is developing a concept of a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly efficiently like an aircraft. The prototype, called Greased Lightning or GL-10, is currently in the design and testing phase. The initial thought was to develop a 20-foot wingspan (6.1 meters) aircraft powered by hybrid diesel/electric engines, but the team started with smaller versions for testing, built by rapid prototyping. During a recent spring day the engineers took the GL-10 to test its wings at a military base about two hours away from NASA Langley. The remotely piloted plane has a 10-foot wingspan (3.05 meters), eight electric motors on the wings, two electric motors on the tail and weighs a maximum of 62 pounds (28.1 kilograms) at take off. This photograph captures the GL-10 prototype taking off in hover mode like a helicopter. Image Credit: NASA Langley/David C. Bowman

3-D PRINTER AND MANUFACTURING IN SPACE

Caption Credit: NASA. The International Space Station’s 3-D printer has manufactured the first 3-D printed object in space, paving the way to future long-term space expeditions. The object, a printhead faceplate, is engraved with names of the organizations that collaborated on this space station technology demonstration: NASA and Made In Space, Inc., the space manufacturing company that worked with NASA to design, build and test the 3-D printer. This image of the printer, with the Microgravity Science Glovebox Engineering Unit in the background, was taken in April 2014 during flight certification and acceptance testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, prior to its launch to the station aboard a SpaceX commercial resupply mission. The first objects built in space will be returned to Earth in 2015 for detailed analysis and comparison to the identical ground control samples made on the flight printer prior to launch. The goal of this analysis is to verify that the 3-D printing process works the same in microgravity as it does on Earth. The printer works by extruding heated plastic, which then builds layer upon layer to create three-dimensional objects. Testing this on the station is the first step toward creating a working "machine shop" in space. This capability may decrease cost and risk on the station, which will be critical when space explorers venture far from Earth and will create an on-demand supply chain for needed tools and parts. Long-term missions would benefit greatly from onboard manufacturing capabilities. Data and experience gathered in this demonstration will improve future 3-D manufacturing technology and equipment for the space program, allowing a greater degree of autonomy and flexibility for astronauts. Image Credit-NASA-Emmett Given.

Caption Credit: U.S. DOD. February 24, 2015 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System Completes Successful Tracking and Simulated Engagements of Three Short-Range Ballistic Missiles. This test was designated Flight Test Other (FTX)-19. This was the first flight test to assess the ability of the Aegis BMD 4.0 weapon system to simulate engagements of a raid consisting of three short-range, separating ballistic missile targets. This was also the first time Aegis BMD 4.0 ships used the DWES capability with live targets. The MDA will use test results to improve and enhance the Ballistic Missile Defense System and support the advancement of Phase 2 of the Phased Adaptive Approach for missile defense in Europe to provide protection of U.S. deployed forces and our European allies and partners.

FROSTY MARS

Caption: Livio Tornabene, Ryan Hopkins, Kayle Hansen and Eric Pilles. This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. At this time of year, only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. Gullies are not the only active geologic process going on here. A small crater is visible at the bottom of the slope. The image was acquired on Nov. 30, 2014, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

ARMY DELIVERS NEW TECH TO GLOBAL RESPONSE FORCE

Caption Credit: Amy Walker, staff writer for PEO C3T. The Army is delivering new technologies to the Global Response Force that will help transform the concept of a command post from a stationary, tented shelter to a mobile enabler for expeditionary mission command - including during operations in flight and early entry into developing situations.

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT REFUELS IN FLIGHT

50422-N-CE233-377 PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (April 22, 2015) The Navy's unmanned X-47B receives fuel from an Omega K-707 tanker while operating in the Atlantic Test Ranges over the Chesapeake Bay. This test marked the first time an unmanned aircraft refueled in flight. (U.S. Navy photo/Released).

U.S. NAVY DISPLAYS 28,000 POUNDS OF COCAINE

Caption Credit: U.S. DOD. 150416-N-UL721-037 SAN DIEGO (April 16, 2015) More than 28,000 pounds of cocaine, worth over $424 million, seized in 19 separate interdictions awaits its offload aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell (WHEC 719) at Naval Base San Diego. U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy ships have seized more cocaine in the last six months than in all of fiscal year 2014. Joint, interagency, and international relationships strengthen U.S. 3rd Fleet's ability to respond to crises and protect the collective maritime interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Corey T. Jones/Released)

SPACEX FALCON 9 ROCKET CARRYING SUPPLIES FOR ISS

Caption Credit: NASA. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft on the sixth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff was at 4:10 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, April 14. Research that will help prepare NASA astronauts and robotic explorers for future missions to Mars is among the two tons of cargo on its way to the International Space Station aboard Dragon. The mission is the company's sixth cargo delivery flight to the station through NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. Dragon's cargo will support approximately 40 of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will be performed during Expeditions 43 and 44, including numerous human research investigations for NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's one-year mission in space. Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

DOD'S LARGES SOLAR ARRAY, NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE

A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the newest Air Force solar array, 19-megawat farm Nellis II, March 24, 2105, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. This is the second industrial-scale array at the base, and, once complete, the arrays will be the largest photovoltaic system in the Department of Defense. (U.S. Air Force photo)

SEA ICE OFF COAST OF EAST ANTARCTICA

On April 5, 2015, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image of sea ice off the coast of East Antarctica’s Princess Astrid Coast. White areas close to the continent are sea ice, while white areas in the northeast corner of the image are clouds. One way to better distinguish ice from clouds is with false-color imagery. In the false-color view of the scene here, ice is blue and clouds are white. The image was acquired after Antarctic sea ice had passed its annual minimum extent (reached on Feb. 20, 2015), and had resumed expansion toward its maximum extent (usually reached in September). More information: NASA's Earth Observatory Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption: Kathryn Hansen.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE?

Caption Credit: NASA. As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways. Perhaps the most surprising water worlds are the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn that show strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn. Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently provided powerful evidence that Ganymede has a saltwater, sub-surface ocean, likely sandwiched between two layers of ice. In this artist’s concept, the moon Ganymede orbits the giant planet Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope observed aurorae on the moon generated by Ganymede’s magnetic fields. A saline ocean under the moon’s icy crust best explains shifting in the auroral belts measured by Hubble. More: The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water Image Credit: NASA/ESA.

HEIST TESTED AT ARMSTRONG FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER

Caption Credit: NASA. Leading Edge Asynchronous Propeller Technology (LEAPTech) project researchers at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center are performing ground testing of a 31-foot-span, carbon composite wing section with 18 electric motors. The LEAPTech project will test the premise that tighter propulsion-airframe integration, made possible with electric power, will deliver improved efficiency and safety, as well as environmental and economic benefits. The experimental wing, called the Hybrid-Electric Integrated Systems Testbed (HEIST), is mounted on a specially modified truck. Testing on the mobile ground rig assembly will provide valuable data and risk reduction applicable to future flight research. Instead of being installed in a wind tunnel, the HEIST wing section will remain attached to load cells on a supporting truss while the vehicle is driven at speeds up to 70 miles per hour across a dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base. LEAPTech to Demonstrate Electric Propulsion Technologies Image Credit: Joby Aviation.

MINERAL VEINS ON MOUNT SHARP, MARS

Caption Credit: NASA. This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called "Garden City" on lower Mount Sharp. The veins combine light and dark material. The veins at this site jut to heights of up to about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) above the surrounding rock, and their widths range up to about 1.5 inches (4 centimeters). Figure 1 includes a 30-centimeter scale bar (about 12 inches). Mineral veins such as these form where fluids move through fractured rocks, depositing minerals in the fractures and affecting chemistry of the surrounding rock. In this case, the veins have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding host rock. This scene is a mosaic combining 28 images taken with Mastcam's right-eye camera, which has a telephoto lens with a focal length of 100 millimeters. The component images were taken on March 18, 2015, during the 929th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. Feature: Curiosity Eyes Prominent Mineral Veins on Mars. Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-MSSS.

A LOOK AT SUPER TYPHOON MAYSAK FROM ISS

Caption Credit: NASA. Typhoon Maysak strengthened into a super typhoon on March 31, reaching Category 5 hurricane status on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti captured this image while flying over the weather system on board the International Space Station. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellites, both co-managed by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, captured rainfall and cloud data that revealed heavy rainfall and high thunderstorms in the strengthening storm. The TRMM satellite has been collecting valuable scientific data since November 1997. Early on March 30, the satellite collected rainfall data as it flew directly above Maysak at 04:14 UTC (12:14 a.m. EDT) when maximum sustained winds were near 85 knots (98 mph). Rainfall data was collected by TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments and showed heaviest rainfall southwest of the center, and in fragmented bands of thunderstorms northeast of the center. In both of those places rainfall was in excess of 50 mm/2 inches per hour. More information. Image Credit-ESA-NASA-Samantha Cristoforetti.

U.S. AIR FORCE THUNDERBIRDS PERFORM DEMONSTRATION AT NELLIS AFB

Caption Credit: U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform their demonstration March 2, 2015, in preparation for the commander of Air Combat Command at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The Thunderbirds perform their show several times a year at multiple locations across the U.S. The solo pilots integrate their own routines, exhibiting some of the maximum capabilities of the Air Force’s premier multi-role fighter jet. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Thomas Spangler)

SOYUZ TMA-16M SPACECRAFT ROLLS OUT

The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft is seen after having rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 25, 2015. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in the Soyuz at 3:42 p.m. EDT, Friday, March 27 (March 28, Kazakh time). As the one-year crew, Kelly and Kornienko will return to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-18M in March 2016. Most expeditions to the space station last four to six months. By doubling the length of this mission, researchers hope to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. This knowledge is critical as NASA looks toward human journeys deeper into the solar system, including to and from Mars, which could last 500 days or longer. More: A Year in Space Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

TRAINING CONTINUES FOR IRAQI TROOPS

Iraqi army soldiers across a street while scanning for threats during close-quarters battle training on Camp Taji, Iraq, March 12, 2015. Iraqi soldiers are training with U.S. soldiers for deployment to northern Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman James Richardson

OPPORTUNITY'S VIEW OF MARATHON VALLEY

This view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows part of "Marathon Valley," a destination on the western rim of Endeavour Crater, as seen from an overlook north of the valley. The scene spans from east, at left, to southeast. It combines four pointings of the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) on March 13, 2015, during the 3,958th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars. The rover team selected Marathon Valley as a science destination because observations of this location using the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter yielded evidence of clay minerals, a clue to ancient wet environments. By the time Opportunity explores Marathon Valley, the rover will have exceeded a total driving distance equivalent to an Olympic marathon. Opportunity has been exploring the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since January 2004. This version of the image is presented in approximate true color by combining exposures taken through three of the Pancam's color filters at each of the four camera pointings, using filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

MAGNETOSPHERIC MULTISCALE SPACECRAFT LAUNCH

Caption Credit: NASA. The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft onboard launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Thursday, March 12, 2015, Florida. NASA’s MMS mission studies the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known as magnetic reconnection. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe. Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.

RETURN OF SOYUZ TMA-14M SPACECRAFT

The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with International Space Station Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The landing took place on the evening of Wednesday, March 11 in the U.S, and early in the morning on Thursday, March 12, in Kazakhstan. The three crew members returned to Earth after a 167-day mission on the orbital outpost that included hundreds of scientific experiments and several spacewalks to prepare the orbiting laboratory for future arrivals by U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

GIVING ORION A LIFT

Caption Credit: NASA. Engineers across the country have been busy taking a closer look at NASA's Orion spacecraft and the data it produced during its successful flight test in December 2014. Inside the Launch Abort System Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Orion was lifted using a special crane for removal of its heat shield on Feb. 13, 2015. In the background, technicians move the heat shield on a work stand. The spacecraft’s heat shield protected Orion as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere at searing temperatures. Removing the back shell allows the team to get a closer look at Orion’s systems to see how they fared during the trip to space. The heat shield was removed in preparation for shipment to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where special equipment will be used to remove its ablative material. From there, the heat shield will be shipped to NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where it will be outfitted on a test article for water impact testing. Meanwhile, NASA and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for Orion, continue to take a look at the data the flight test produced to validate pre-flight models and improve the spacecraft’s design. Analysis of data obtained during its two-orbit, four-and-a-half hour mission Dec. 5 will provide engineers detailed information on how the spacecraft fared. Photo Credit-NASA-Jim Grossmann.

U.S. AIR FORCE THUNDERBIRD'S DEMONSTRATE FLYING SKILLS

U.S. DOD Caption: U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds air demonstration jets pass during a practice show on Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nov. 7, 2014. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez

DAWN ARIVES TO DWARF PLANET CERES

Caption Credit: NASA. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has become the first mission to achieve orbit around a dwarf planet. The spacecraft was approximately 38,000 miles (61,000) kilometers from Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planet’s gravity at about 4:39 a.m. PST (7:39 a.m. EST) Friday, March 6. This image of Ceres was taken by the Dawn spacecraft on March 1, just a few days before the mission achieved orbit around the previously unexplored world. The image shows Ceres as a crescent, mostly in shadow because the spacecraft's trajectory put it on a side of Ceres that faces away from the sun until mid-April. When Dawn emerges from Ceres' dark side, it will deliver ever-sharper images as it spirals to lower orbits around the planet. The image was obtained at a distance of about 30,000 miles (about 48,000 kilometers) at a sun-Ceres-spacecraft angle, or phase angle, of 123 degrees. Image scale on Ceres is 1.9 miles (2.9 kilometers) per pixel. Ceres has an average diameter of about 590 miles (950 kilometers). Dawn's mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

THUNDERBIRDS PERFORM FLYOVER AT SUPERBOWL XLIX

Caption Credit: U.S. Defense department. Thunderbirds pilots approach the University of Phoenix Stadium to perform a flyover during opening ceremonies of the Super Bowl XLIX game in Glendale, Ariz., Feb. 1, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez.

COMET C/2014 Q2 KNOWN AS LOVEJOY

Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) is one of more than 32 comets imaged by NASA's NEOWISE mission from December 2013 to December 2014. This image of comet Lovejoy combines a series of observations made in November 2013, when comet Lovejoy was 1.7 astronomical units from the sun. (An astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun.) The image spans half of one degree. It shows the comet moving in a mostly west and slightly south direction. (North is 26 degrees to the right of up in the image, and west is 26 degrees downward from directly right.) The red color is caused by the strong signal in the NEOWISE 4.6-micron wavelength detector, owing to a combination of gas and dust in the comet's coma. Comet Lovejoy is the brightest comet in Earth's sky in early 2015. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

ISS VIEW OF THE ISLAND OF HAWAII

Caption Credit: NASA. From the International Space Station, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) took this photograph of the island of Hawaii and posted it to social media on Feb. 28, 2015. Cristoforetti wrote, "And suddenly as we flew over the Pacific... the island of #Hawaii with its volcanoes! #HelloEarth".Crewmembers on the space station photograph the Earth from their unique point of view located 200 miles above the surface as part of the Crew Earth Observations program. Photographs record how the planet is changing over time, from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Astronauts have used hand-held cameras to photograph the Earth for more than 40 years, beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s. The ISS maintains an altitude between 220 - 286 miles (354 - 460 km) above the Earth, and an orbital inclination of 51.6˚, providing an excellent stage for observing most populated areas of the world. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti.

GETTING READY FOR VISITORS IN SPACE

Caption Credit: NASA. NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore works outside the International Space Station on the first of three spacewalks preparing the station for future arrivals by U.S. commercial crew spacecraft, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015. Fellow spacewalker Terry Virts, seen reflected in the visor, shared this photograph on social media. The spacewalks are designed to lay cables along the forward end of the U.S. segment to bring power and communication to two International Docking Adapters slated to arrive later this year. The new docking ports will welcome U.S. commercial spacecraft launching from Florida beginning in 2017, permitting the standard station crew size to grow from six to seven and potentially double the amount of crew time devoted to research. The second and third spacewalks are planned for Wednesday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, March 1, with Wilmore and Virts participating in all three. Image Credit: NASA.

"LIVE LONG AND PROSPER"

Caption Credit: NASAInternational Space Station astronaut Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) tweeted this image of a Vulcan hand salute from orbit as a tribute to actor Leonard Nimoy, who died on Friday, Feb. 27, 2015. Nimoy played science officer Mr. Spock in the Star Trek series that served as an inspiration to generations of scientists, engineers and sci-fi fans around the world. Cape Cod and Boston, Massachusetts, Nimoy's home town, are visible through the station window.

SMAP LAUNCHES INTO SPACE

Caption Credit: NASA. A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory onboard is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from Space Launch Complex 2, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy, and carbon cycles. )Photo Credit-NASA-Bill Ingalls.

2015: THE YEAR OF LIGHT

The year of 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light (IYL) by the United Nations. Organizations, institutions, and individuals involved in the science and applications of light will be joining together for this yearlong celebration to help spread the word about the wonders of light. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory explores the universe in X-rays, a high-energy form of light. By studying X-ray data and comparing them with observations in other types of light, scientists can develop a better understanding of objects likes stars and galaxies that generate temperatures of millions of degrees and produce X-rays. To recognize the start of IYL, the Chandra X-ray Center is releasing a set of images that combine data from telescopes tuned to different wavelengths of light. From a distant galaxy to the relatively nearby debris field of an exploded star, these images demonstrate the myriad ways that information about the universe is communicated to us through light. In this image, an expanding shell of debris called SNR 0519-69.0 is left behind after a massive star exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. Multimillion degree gas is seen in X-rays from Chandra, in blue. The outer edge of the explosion (red) and stars in the field of view are seen in visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope. Chandra Celebrates the International Year of Light. Image Credit: NASA-CXC-SAO.

NASA SENDS SOUNDING ROCKETS INTO AUROAS

The interaction of solar winds and Earth’s atmosphere produces northern lights, or auroras, that dance across the night sky and mesmerize the casual observer. However, to scientists this interaction is more than a light display. It produces many questions about the role it plays in Earth’s meteorological processes and the impact on the planet’s atmosphere. To help answer some of these questions, NASA suborbital sounding rockets carrying university-developed experiments -- the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (M-TeX) and Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) -- were launched into auroras from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The experiments explore the Earth’s atmosphere’s response to auroral, radiation belt and solar energetic particles and associated effects on nitric oxide and ozone. This composite shot of all four sounding rockets for the M-TeX and MIST experiments is made up of 30 second exposures. The rocket salvo began at 4:13 a.m. EST, Jan. 26, 2015. A fifth rocket carrying the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe remains ready on the launch pad. The launch window for this experiment runs through Jan. 27. Image Credit: NASA-Jamie Adkin.

THE FIRST BIG SOLAR FLARE OF 2015

The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 11:24 p.m. EST on Jan. 12, 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. Image Credit-NASA-SDO.

AIR FORCE BUILDS AN ICE BRIDGE IN ALASKA

Caption Credit: U.S. DOD. Senior Airman Jerry Mitchell uses a water pump Nov. 20, 2014, while constructing an ice bridge in Fairbanks, Alaska. The bridge must be constructed every other year to provide access to the $20 million range complex used to train pilots from around the world during Red Flag-Alaska exercises. Mitchell is a heavy equipment operator with the 354th Civil Engineer Squadron on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. (U.S. Air Force photo-Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel)

K2: PROFILE OF A PLANET HUNTER

Caption Credit: NASA. The artistic impression shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. In May the spacecraft began its new mission observing in the ecliptic plane, the orbital path of Earth around the sun, depicted by the grey-blue line marked by opaque cross-like shapes. Each shape represents the field-of-view of an observing campaign. The K2 mission observes a specific portion of the distant sky for approximately 80 days, until it is necessary to rotate the spacecraft to prevent sunlight from entering the telescope. The spacecraft orbits the sun every 372 days as it trails Earth, allowing for four full campaigns per orbit or year. The arching band of stars is the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. Using publicly available data collected by the spacecraft in February 2014 during the performance concept test to prove K2 would work, astronomers have confirmed the first exoplanet detected by the K2 mission. The newly confirmed planet, HIP 116454b, is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth, and closely orbits a star smaller and cooler than our sun once every nine days, making the planet too hot for life as we know it. The star and planet are 180 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Pisces. In May 2013, data collection for Kepler's extended prime mission came to an end when the second of four reaction wheels used to stabilize the spacecraft failed. Without at least three functioning reaction wheels, Kepler couldn’t be pointed at the original field with sufficient stability to precisely measure the dimming of starlight caused by a planet when it passes or transits in front of a distant star. Rather than giving up on the stalwart spacecraft, a team of scientists and engineers crafted a resourceful strategy to use pressure from sunlight as a virtual reaction wheel to help control the spacecraft while observing the sky in the ecliptic plane. The resulting K2 mission promises to not only continue Kepler’s planet hunt, but to expand that search to bright nearby stars which harbor planets that allow scientists to study them in detail to better understand their composition. K2 will also introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, active galaxies, and supernovae. Link to full NASA press release: NASA’s Kepler Reborn, Makes First Exoplanet Find of New Mission Credit: NASA Ames-JPL-Caltech-T Pyle.

MARS ROVER VISITS THE LAKE

Caption Credit: NASA. This evenly layered rock photographed by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover shows a pattern typical of a lake-floor sedimentary deposit not far from where flowing water entered a lake. The scene combines multiple frames taken with Mastcam's right-eye camera on Aug. 7, 2014, during the 712th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. It shows an outcrop at the edge of "Hidden Valley," seen from the valley floor. This view spans about 5 feet (1.5 meters) across in the foreground. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Figure A is a version with a superimposed scale bar of 50 centimeters (about 20 inches). This is an example of a thick-laminated, evenly-stratified rock type that forms stratigraphically beneath cross-bedded sandstones regarded as ancient river deposits. These rocks are interpreted to record sedimentation in a lake, as part of or in front of a delta, where plumes of river sediment settled out of the water column and onto the lake floor. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. Related: NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to How Water Helped Shape Martian Landscape Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

THE END OF THE MISSION IN AFGHAISTAN

Caption Credit: U.S. DOD. A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter lands while coalition troops prepare for the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command and U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps end-of-mission ceremony on North Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan, Dec. 8, 2014. The command's five-year mission was to neutralize the insurgency in specified areas and support improved governance and development, in order to protect the Afghan people and provide a secure environment for sustainable peace. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston

NASA DEVELOPING TECH TO IMPROVE FUEL EFFICIENCY, NOISE POLUTION

Caption Credit: NASA. NASA's green aviation project is one step closer to developing technology that could make future airliners quieter and more fuel-efficient with the successful flight test of a wing surface that can change shape in flight. This past summer, researchers replaced an airplane’s conventional aluminum flaps with advanced, shape-changing assemblies that form seamless bendable and twistable surfaces. Flight testing will determine whether flexible trailing-edge wing flaps are a viable approach to improve aerodynamic efficiency and reduce noise generated during takeoffs and landings. For the initial Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) flight, shown in this image, the experimental control surfaces were locked at a specified setting. Varied flap settings on subsequent tests will demonstrate the capability of the flexible surfaces under actual flight conditions. ACTE technology is expected to have far-reaching effects on future aviation. Advanced lightweight materials will reduce wing structural weight and give engineers the ability to aerodynamically tailor the wings to promote improved fuel economy and more efficient operations, while reducing environmental impacts. NASA Tests Revolutionary Shape Changing Aircraft Flap for the First Time Image Credit: NASA/Ken Ulbrich.

ORION PASSES SPACEPORT VEHICLE ASSEMBLY BUILDING

Caption Credit: NASA. At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the agency's Orion spacecraft passes the spaceport's iconic Vehicle Assembly Building as it is transported to Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. After arrival at the launch pad, United Launch Alliance engineers and technicians will lift Orion and mount it atop its Delta IV Heavy rocket. Orion began its journey to the launch pad at at the Launch Abort System Facility, where a 52-foot-tall protective fairing and the launch abort system were attached to the 10-foot, 11-inch-tall crew module. Resting atop a specialized Kamag transporter, Orion was moved to Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The move began at 8:54 p.m. EST and concluded at 3:07 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion is scheduled to launch Dec. 4, 2014 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in its first unpiloted flight test, and in 2018 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.

NuSTAR FINDS ENERGETIC PULSAR

Image and caption credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAO. The blue dot in this image marks the spot of an energetic pulsar -- the magnetic, spinning core of star that blew up in a supernova explosion. NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, discovered the pulsar by identifying its telltale pulse -- a rotating beam of X-rays, that like a cosmic lighthouse, intersects Earth every 0.2 seconds. The pulsar, called PSR J1640-4631, lies in our inner Milky Way galaxy about 42,000 light-years away. It was originally identified by as an intense source of gamma rays by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) in Namibia. NuSTAR helped pin down the source of the gamma rays to a pulsar. The other pink dots in this picture show low-energy X-rays detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. In this image, NuSTAR data is blue and shows high-energy X-rays with 3 to 79 kiloelectron volts; Chandra data is pink and shows X-rays with 0.5 to 10 kiloeletron volts. The background image shows infrared light and was captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

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ULTRA VIOLET EXTREME

NASA Caption: The sun emitted a significant solar flare on Oct. 19, 2014, peaking at 1:01 a.m. EDT. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is always observing the sun, captured this image of the event in extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 131 Angstroms – a wavelength that can see the intense heat of a flare and that is typically colorized in teal. This flare is classified as an X1.1-class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 flare is twice as intense as an X1, and an X3 is three times as intense. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. > More: NASA's SDO Observes an X-class Solar Flare. Image Credit-NASA-Solar Dynamics Observatory.

GLACIERS AND MOUNTAINS OF WEST ANTARTICA

Caption Credit: NASA. Glaciers and mountains in the evening sun are seen on an Operation IceBridge research flight, returning from West Antarctica on Oct. 29, 2014. NASA is carrying out its sixth consecutive year of Operation IceBridge research flights over Antarctica to study changes in the continent’s ice sheet, glaciers and sea ice. This year’s airborne campaign revisits a section of the Antarctic ice sheet that recently was found to be in irreversible decline. IceBridge uses a suite of instruments that includes a laser altimeter, radar instruments, cameras, and a gravimeter, which is an instrument that detects small changes in gravity. These small changes reveal how much mass these glaciers have lost. Researchers plan to measure previously unsurveyed regions of Antarctica, such as the upper portions of Smith Glacier in West Antarctica, which is thinning faster than any other glaciers in the region. The mission also plans to collect data in portions of the Antarctic Peninsula, such as the Larsen C, George VI and Wilkins ice shelves and the glaciers that drain into them. The Antarctic Peninsula has been warming faster than the rest of the continent. In addition to extending the data record of NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), which stopped collecting data in 2009, IceBridge will also help set the stage for ICESat-2 by measuring ice the satellite will fly over. > Operation IceBridge Antarctic 2014 Campaign Image Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger.

ANTARES ROCKET EXPLODES DURING LAUNCH

Attention: Antares rocket explodes on liftoff Monday, Oct. 27. NASA Caption: Orbital Antares Rocket at the Launch Pad: The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is seen on launch Pad-0A, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Antares will launch with the Cygnus spacecraft filled with over 5,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. The Orbital-3 mission is Orbital Sciences' third contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Launch is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27 at 6:45 p.m. EDT. Image Credit-NASA-Joel Kowsky.

THE ULTIMATE IN SUNBLOCK

A partial solar eclipse was visible from much of North America before sundown on Thursday, Oct.23. A partial eclipse occurs when the moon blocks a portion of the Sun from view. The Hinode spacecraft captured images of yesterday’s eclipse as it passed over North America using its X-ray Telescope. During the eclipse, the new moon eased across the Sun from right to left with the Sun shining brilliantly in the background. And as a stroke of good luck, this solar cycle’s largest active region, which has been the source of several large flares over the past week, was centered on the Sun’s disk as the moon transitted! Hinode is in the eighth year of its mission to observe the Sun. Previously, Hinode has observed numerous eclipses due to its high-altitude, sun-synchronous orbit. As viewed from Hinode’s vantage point in space, this eclipse was annular instead of partial, which means that the entire moon moved in front of the Sun but did not cover it completely. In this situation, a ring of the Sun encircles the dark disk of the moon. Led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Hinode mission is a collaboration between the space agencies of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. NASA helped in the development, funding and assembly of the spacecraft's three science instruments. Hinode is part of the Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) Program within the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Hinode science operations. The Lockheed Martin Corp. in Palo Alto, Calif., is the lead U.S. investigator for the Solar Optical Telescope. Image Credit: NASA

F-22 RAPTOR REFUELS BEFORE STRIKE OPERATIONS IN SYRIA

Caption Credit: U.S. Defense Department. An U.S Air Force KC-10 Extender refuels an F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft before strike operations in Syria, Sept. 26, 2014. These aircraft were part of a strike package engaging targets against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Russ Scalf.

SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION IN X-RAY LIGHT

Caption Credit: NASA. The destructive results of a powerful supernova explosion reveal themselves in a delicate tapestry of X-ray light, as seen in this image from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton. The image shows the remains of a supernova that would have been witnessed on Earth about 3,700 years ago. The remnant is called Puppis A, and is around 7,000 light years away and about 10 light years across. This image provides the most complete and detailed X-ray view of Puppis A ever obtained, made by combining a mosaic of different Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. Low-energy X-rays are shown in red, medium-energy X-rays are in green and high energy X-rays are colored blue. These observations act as a probe of the gas surrounding Puppis A, known as the interstellar medium. The complex appearance of the remnant shows that Puppis A is expanding into an interstellar medium that probably has a knotty structure. Supernova explosions forge the heavy elements that can provide the raw material from which future generations of stars and planets will form. Studying how supernova remnants expand into the galaxy and interact with other material provides critical clues into our own origins. A paper describing these results was published in the July 2013 issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is available online. The first author is Gloria Dubner from the Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Image credit: NASA/CXC/IAFE/G.Dubner et al & ESA/XMM-Newton.

TROPICAL STORM KARINA FOLLOWED BY TROPICAL DEPRESSION

Caption Credit: NASA. On August 18, NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of tiny Tropical Storm Karina followed to the east by the massive Tropical Depression12-E. Image Credit: On August 18, NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of tiny Tropical Storm Karina followed to the east by the massive Tropical Depression12-E.

TEST VERSION OF ORION SPACECRAFT FLOATS

Caption Credit: NASA. A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft floats inside the well deck of the U.S.S. Anchorage on Aug. 2, 2014, during recovery tests off the coast of California. A combined NASA and U.S. Navy team practiced recovery techniques over the weekend, in preparation for Orion's first trip to (and return from) space in Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) in December. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. After traveling 3,600 miles into space on the uncrewed EFT-1, Orion will return to Earth at a speed of 20,000 miles per hour and endure temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit before landing in the Pacific Ocean. > NASA Prepares for Second Orion Underway Recovery Test Image Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Gary Keen

MAN'S FIRST MOON LANDING

CAPTION AND IMAGE CREDIT: NASA. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle, in a landing configuration was photographed in lunar orbit from the Command and Service Module Columbia. Inside the module were Commander Neil A. Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. The long rod-like protrusions under the landing pods are lunar surface sensing probes. Upon contact with the lunar surface, the probes sent a signal to the crew to shut down the descent engine.

PROTOTYPE ROBOT WITH SMARTPHONE TO TEST3-D MAPPING, NAVIGATION

Image and Story Credit: NASA/Ames. Orbital Sciences Corporation's Cygnus spacecraft will carry 3,293 pounds (1,493.8 kg) of cargo on its upcoming commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station, including crew supplies, nanosatellites, student research and this prototype free-flying space robot equipped with a smartphone, known as Smart SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites). NASA has been testing SPHERES on the space station since 2011. This summer, astronauts will upgrade these existing space robots to use Google’s "Project Tango" smartphone, which features a custom 3-D sensor and multiple cameras. NASA will then use the Smart SPHERES to test free-flying 3-D mapping and navigation inside the space station. NASA is developing the Smart SPHERES to perform work on the space station that requires mobile sensing, such as environmental surveys to monitor levels of radiation, lighting and air quality. They also will be used to monitor inventory and conduct experiments. The development and testing of Smart SPHERES is funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA'S NEW POWERFUL ROCKET

NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, will be the most powerful rocket in history. The flexible, evolvable design of this advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle will meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs. In addition to carrying the Orion spacecraft, SLS will transfer important cargo, equipment and science experiments to deep space, providing the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable means to expand our reach in the solar system. It will allow astronauts aboard Orion to explore multiple deep-space destinations including an asteroid and ultimately Mars. The first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will have a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. As the SLS is evolved, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built and provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system. Image Credit: NASA.

THE MAIDEN FLIGHT OF THE UNMANNED BAT

Caption Credit: U.S. Navy. 40606-N-IQ177-002 STRAITS OF FLORIDA (June 06, 2014) During an experimentation conducted by U.S. Fourth Fleet and Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC), the BAT Unmanned Aircraft System flies over the Joint High Speed Vessel USNS Spearhead (JHSV 1) during its maiden flight off of a U.S. Navy vessel. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jessica Crownover/Released).

FIRES BURN AT MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON

THE GRANDEST CANYON IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars: Explanation: The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The above mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. Image and story credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA.

A LOOK AT THE DUNES OF MARS

Nili Patera is one of the most active dune fields on Mars. As such, it is continuously monitored with the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera, a science instrument aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, with a new image acquired about every six weeks. By monitoring the sand dune changes, we can determine how winds vary seasonally and year-to-year. This observation is one of the more recent Nili images, acquired on March 1, 2014. Compared to an image acquired on Nov. 22, 2012, changes are obvious. The ripples on the dunes have moved, as well some of the dune boundaries, such as the one at upper left. New landslides on the central dune's lee face are apparent. Such changes, in just 16 months (and finer scale changes have been seen in just a couple of weeks), demonstrate the effectiveness of wind in modifying the Martian landscape. HiRISE is one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates the orbiter's HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. > More information and image products Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech-Univ. of Arizona Caption: Nathan Bridges.

ROBONAUT 2 GETS HIS SPACE LEGS

NASA has built and is sending a set of high-tech legs up to the International Space Station for Robonaut 2 (R2), the station's robotic crewmember. The new legs are scheduled to launch on the SpaceX-3 commercial cargo flight to the International Space Station, scheduled launch Monday, April 14 at 4:58 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. These new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will provide R2 the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station. The goal is to free up the crew for more critical work, including scientific research. Once the legs are attached to the R2 torso, the robot will have a fully extended leg span of nine feet, giving it great flexibility for movement around the space station. Each leg has seven joints and a device on what would be the foot, called an "end effector," which allows the robot to take advantage of handrails and sockets inside and outside the station. A vision system for the end effectors also will be used to verify and eventually automate each limb's approach and grasp. Image Credit: NASA.

BIG FLARE BUT NO REAL SCARE

On Feb. 24, 2014, the sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 7:49 p.m. EST. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which keeps a constant watch on the sun, captured images of the event. These SDO images from 7:25 p.m. EST on Feb. 24 show the first moments of this X-class flare in different wavelengths of light -- seen as the bright spot that appears on the left limb of the sun. Hot solar material can be seen hovering above the active region in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation, appearing as giant flashes of light in the SDO images. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however -- when intense enough -- they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. Image Credit: NASA/SDO.

GALAXY SHOCK

FROM NASA: Roguish runaway stars can have a big impact on their surroundings as they plunge through the Milky Way galaxy. Their high-speed encounters shock the galaxy, creating arcs, as seen in this newly released image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. In this case, the speedster star is known as Kappa Cassiopeiae, or HD 2905 to astronomers. It is a massive, hot supergiant moving at around 2.5 million mph relative to its neighbors (1,100 kilometers per second). But what really makes the star stand out in this image is the surrounding, streaky red glow of material in its path. Such structures are called bow shocks, and they can often be seen in front of the fastest, most massive stars in the galaxy. Bow shocks form where the magnetic fields and wind of particles flowing off a star collide with the diffuse, and usually invisible, gas and dust that fill the space between stars. How these shocks light up tells astronomers about the conditions around the star and in space. Slow-moving stars like our sun have bow shocks that are nearly invisible at all wavelengths of light, but fast stars like Kappa Cassiopeiae create shocks that can be seen by Spitzer’s infrared detectors. Image Credit-NASA-JPL-Caltech

THE FIRST FLAG ON THE MOON

Photo taken by Neil Arstrong of Buzz Aldrin with U.S. flag on the Moon. (mission time: 110:10:33) Buzz salutes the U.S. Flag. His fingertips are visible on the far side of his faceplate. Note the well-defined footprints in the foreground. Buzz is facing up-Sun. There is a reflection of the Sun in his visor. At the bottom of Buzz's faceplate, note the white 'rim' which is slightly separated from his neckring. This 'rim' is the bottom of his gold visor, which he has pulled down. We can see the LEC straps hanging down inside of the ladder strut. In the foreground, we can see the foot-grabbing loops in the TV cable. The double crater under Neil's Lm window is beyond Buzz and the LM shadow

JAPANESE H-IIA ROCKET LAUNCHES FROM TANEGASHIMA SPACE CENTER

A Japanese H-IIA rocket with the NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard, is seen launching from the Tanegashima Space Center on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014 (Japan Time), in Tanegashima, Japan. The GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. Image Credit-NASA-Bill Ingalls.

U.S. COAST GUARD BREAKING THE ICE

An aerial view shows the Coast Guard Cutter Sturgeon Bay breaking ice on the Hudson River, N.Y., Jan. 16, 2014. The Coast Guard conducts flights over the Hudson River to provide daily updates of ice conditions on waterways, including areas known as choke points where ice gathers, making river travel difficult for ships delivering petroleum products such as home heating oil. U.S. Goard Guard photo.

A LOOK AT THE CRAB NEBULA

This image shows a composite view of the Crab nebula, an iconic supernova remnant in our Milky Way galaxy, as viewed by the Herschel Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. Herschel is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with important NASA contributions, and Hubble is a NASA mission with important ESA contributions. A wispy and filamentary cloud of gas and dust, the Crab nebula is the remnant of a supernova explosion that was observed by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054. The image combines Hubble's view of the nebula at visible wavelengths, obtained using three different filters sensitive to the emission from oxygen and sulphur ions and is shown here in blue. Herschel's far-infrared image reveals the emission from dust in the nebula and is shown here in red. While studying the dust content of the Crab nebula with Herschel, a team of astronomers have detected emission lines from argon hydride, a molecular ion containing the noble gas argon. This is the first detection of a noble-gas based compound in space. The Herschel image is based on data taken with the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) instrument at a wavelength of 70 microns; the Hubble image is based on archival data from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Image credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/MESS Key Programme Supernova Remnant Team; NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University).

NAVY'S FIRST RAY GUN

The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif., is a technology demonstrator built by the Naval Sea Systems Command from commercial fiber solid state lasers, utilizing combination methods developed at the Naval Research Laboratory, July 30, 2012.

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON

New Way To Control Hostile Crowds. March 14, 2012 Article. AFPS

WHERE STARS COME FROM

Illuminated by the light of nearby stars, the nebula M-78 exhibits a ghostly appearance in this 10-minute exposure taken with a 6" refractor at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Located in the constellation of Orion -- some1,600 light years from Earth -- this reflection nebula is known to contain more than 40 very young stars still in the process of formation. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO/Bill Cooke

FUTURE FLIGHT

Aeronautics: New Ideas for Greener Aircraft We are accelerating the nation’s transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and making commercial aviation safer, more fuel efficient, quieter, and more environmentally friendly through investments in revolutionary concepts for air vehicles and air traffic management. Three industry teams spent 2011 studying how to meet NASA's goals for making future aircraft burn 50 percent less fuel than aircraft that entered service in 1998, emit 75 percent fewer harmful emissions; and shrink the size of geographic areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83 percent. Image Credit: NASA

What Is Wrong With The Sun?

Something unexpected is happening on the Sun. 2013 was supposed to be the year of "solar maximum", the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values from 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent. The quiet has led some observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark. Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum. At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares. At the other end, solar max brings high sunspot numbers and frequent solar storms. It’s a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years. Image Credit: NASA/SDO

USS CONSTITUTION COMMERATES THE WAR OF 1812

"OLD IRONSIDES" IS STILL A COMMISSIONED WARSHIP

SPACEX DRAGON LAUNCHES

The Launch of SpaceX Dragon KSC-2012-2913 (22 May 2012) --- On Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Space Launch Complex-40 is ablaze as the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off at 3:44 a.m. (EDT) May 22, 2012. The launch is the company's second demonstration test flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program. During the flight, the Dragon capsule will conduct a series of check-out procedures to test and prove its systems, including rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station. If the capsule performs as planned, the cargo and experiments it is carrying will be transferred to the station. The cargo includes food, water and provisions for the station's Expedition crews, such as clothing, batteries and computer equipment. Under COTS, NASA has partnered with two aerospace companies to deliver cargo to the station. Photo credit: NASA

USS ENTERPRISE IN 2001

011105-N-6259P-001 At sea aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) Nov. 5, 2001 -- Sailors aboard USS Enterprise spell out "E = MC2x40" on the carrier's flight deck to mark forty years of U.S. Naval nuclear power as ship and crew return home from a deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Douglass M. Pearlman. (RELEASED)

USS ARIZONA

The opening of hostilities in Europe in September 1939 spurred the rebuilding of the Navy’s battleship forces. Two years later, on Dec. 7, 1941, eight of the Navy’s battleships were sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor. Six of these were subsequently repaired and returned to service. Credit: U.S. Navy

THE LAST BATTLESHIP

The last battleship on active duty was USS Missouri(BB 63) decommissioned Mar. 31, 1992. In the 21st century, there are no battleships in the United States Navy. Credit: U.S. Navy

MOM AND DAD

This blog is dedicated to Junior Lee and Dorothy Jean (Short) Brandt

APOLLO 13 CREW AND PRESIDENT NIXON

Credit: NASA

HOME WORLD EARTH

"A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's most recently launched Earth-observing satellite - Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed 'Suomi NPP' on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin. Suomi NPP is NASA's next Earth-observing research satellite. It is the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth. Suomi NPP is carrying five instruments on board. The biggest and most important instrument is The Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite or VIIRS.

UNMANNED PREDATOR AIRCRAFT

An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft prepares for takeoff in support of operations in Southwest Asia. Air Force officials announced Eglin Air Force Base complex in Florida as a candidate for an Air Force Reserve Command MQ-1 Remote Split-Operations squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Julianne Showalter)

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY LIFTS OFF INTO A DARK SKY

The Discovery space shuttle lifting off on the STS-119 mission from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The STS-119 mission is the 28th to the International Space Station and the 125th space shuttle flight. Discovery will deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and the S6 truss segment

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY SITS ON LAUNCH PAD

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY LIFTS OFF

Kennedy Space Centre, Florida - Space Shuttle Discovery launches at the beginning of STS-60, the first mission in the Shuttle-Mir programme, carrying the first Russian cosmonaut ever to fly aboard the US Shuttle.